Jon Snow to be honoured at BPG Awards lunch
March 23, 2022
The journalist and broadcaster, Jon Snow, is to be honoured later this week at the 48th annual Broadcasting Press Guild Awards, chosen by journalists who write about television, streaming and audio, sponsored by YouTube.
On March 25th, he will receive the Harvey Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Broadcasting at the awards lunch at The Brewery, Chiswell Street, in the City of London. The award celebrates his 48 years of reporting and presenting the news, most notably as the face of Channel 4 News from 1989 to 2021.
It recognises a career of remarkable broadcasting, in which he has covered elections, wars, earthquakes and many of the world’s most memorable events, including the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the release of Nelson Mandela, earthquakes in Haiti and Japan, and the elections of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, Tony Blair and Barack Obama.
Snow began his career at LBC Radio in 1973, where he established his reputation for getting quickly to the story (often on his bicycle) and securing interviews with those at the centre of it. He joined ITN in 1978, serving as its Washington correspondent in the mid 1980s; as diplomatic editor in the second half of the eighties and, in 1992 as the main anchor for ITN’s election night programme on ITV. He also presented the award-winning documentary Sri Lanka’s Killing Fields, as well as reaching out to audiences through his daily news email ‘Snowmail’ from 2000 to 2021.
The BPG also recognises him for being outspoken and idealistic – even declining to accept an OBE, believing journalists should not receive honours from the people on whom they report – and, on a lighter note, for his sartorially famous collection of brightly coloured ties that underline his irreplaceable on-air style.
The BPG’s chairman Grant Tucker, said: “A fearless journalist, Jon Snow has spent his life holding the powerful to account and in doing so has earnt his place among Britain’s greatest news presenters. As war once again dominates headlines around the world, we are also reminded of Snow’s tenacious reporting from countless conflicts to ensure audiences witnessed the horrors of war.”
The BPG Television, Streaming and Audio Awards are highly prized by programme-makers because they are selected independently by journalists who write about TV, radio, streaming and podcasts – correspondents, critics and previewers. The awards lunch, sponsored by YouTube, will be attended by the winners, BPG members and leading broadcasting executives.