José Rodrigues dos Santos
Writer, Journalist, Presenter, RTP
José Rodrigues dos Santos is a journalist, a lecturer at Lisbon’s New University and a writer.
José was born in Mozambique, in April 1964, when this African country was part of the Portuguese empire. His father was a flying doctor, travelling around war-torn Mozambique providing medical assistance to local inhabitants. It was in Mozambique that José first experienced the harsh realities of war, which were to have an impact later on in his life.
After the collapse of the Portuguese empire, in 1974, José moved to Portugal; then, five years later, to Macau, a Portuguese colony in China, close to Hong Kong and began, at age of seventeen, his journalistic career working as a reporter for Radio Macau. He returned to Portugal in 1982 to take a degree in journalism before moving to the UK in 1986 to work for the BBC in London.
In 1990, José returned to Portugal where he was hired by RTP, Portugal’s public television station. He also began teaching television journalism and radio drama at Lisbon’s New University. At RTP he began as a reporter for Telejornal, RTP’s Evening News, but within a few months became a presenter for 24 Horas, RTP’s Late News. It was while presenting this programme in January 1991 that news of the Gulf War broke. His presentation of the ensuing dramatic events instantly brought him to national attention. As a result, José was soon promoted to presenter of Telejornal, becoming RTP’s main anchorman, a position he still holds today.
In 1993, and while working for RTP, he became a regular CNN World Report contributor, filing stories from around the world to the American television news station. He became involved in war reporting, a situation he was familiar with, as a result of his childhood in Mozambique.
He covered war and crisis in South Africa, Angola, East Timor, Iraq, Kuwait, Israel and the Palestinian territories, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia, Lebanon and Georgia. His last conflict was the 2011 civil war and NATO bombing in Libya, which he covered from Bengazhi, Adjbadyia, Brega and Ben Jawar.
In 2000, José finished his Ph. D. dissertation on war reporting, which he later published in three volumes, entitled War Chronicles.
Over the years, José Rodrigues dos Santos has won several awards, both academic and journalistic. He was awarded twice by the Portuguese Press Club - in 1986 with Prémio Ensaio, and in 1994 with the Grande Prémio de Journalismo (Grand Award of Journalism). In 1987 José won the American Club of Lisbon Award for Academic Merit, by the American Club of Lisbon. He also received several awards for best television news presenter in Portugal as voted by the public. Internationally, he won three CNN awards: the Best News Breaking Story of the Year, in 1994, for the story “Huambo Battle”, set in the Angolan civil war; the Best News Story of the Year for the Sunday, in 1998, for the report “Albania Bunkers”, set in the 1997 civil unrest in that country; and in 2000 the Contributor Achievement Award in recognition of his career.
In 2002, a friend involved in a literary magazine asked José to write a short story for him. He had read War Chronicles and believed José was a novelist in waiting. José did not agree with his friend, but he owed him a favour.
So, drawing from his journalistic writing and radio drama scripting, José began writing. To date, José has sold more than one million books in Portugal.
His latest work is The White Angel (149,000 copies), the story of a flying doctor in war-torn Mozambique who, one day, while visiting a remote village, comes across a terrible, dark secret. This novel is based on the life of the author’s own father and it became the nº1 bestselling book of 2010 in Portugal.
