Jornalismo de guerra no Médio Oriente: histórias, testemunhos e reportagens de jornalistas portugueses

In the August 29, 1914 newspaper A Capital announced on its cover the historic decision to send journalist Hermano Neves as the first special correspondent to cover the First World War. It should be noted that, to date, Portugal remained practically dependent on foreign publications and international agencies to report on armed conflicts across borders. We know today that the challenges encountered by Hermano Neves prevented him from reporting closely and in detail the various events and his work failed to meet expectations. However, his presence motivated other Portuguese newsrooms to take similar decisions, thus starting the tradition of Portuguese special envoys sent to cover war and opening a new chapter in the national journalistic panorama. One hundred years later, it is possible to identify how war journalism evolved in Portugal, and how, over the decades, several Portuguese journalists risked their lives to bring to our country news of international wars that, it is important to highlight, do not always have the presence of Portuguese troops. With this study we here propose an analysis of the work of some of these journalists, not only through their reports, but also from personal testimonies written by them, testimonies that shed light on the challenges and lessons of working in the war field. To analyse this type of journalism we choose Portuguese war journalism carried out in the Middle East region, where some of Portuguese great journalists worked such as Cáceres Monteiro, Cândida Pinto, Carlos Fino and Sofia Lorena. Through the work and writing of these journalists, among others, and going from the Gulf War period to present day, this study seeks to analyse the importance and contribution of the presence of Portuguese reporters on the war stage for the history of national journalism.