José Hamilton Ribeiro

José Hamilton Ribeiro is a Brazilian journalist and author. He has worked as a reporter and editor for the magazines Realidade and Quatro Rodas, the newspaper Folha de S. Paulo, and the programs Globo Repórter, Fantástico, and Globo Rural, and is the author of fifteen books. In December 2012, a study by the news bulletin Jornalistas & Cia concluded that Ribeiro, as measured by the number and importance of prizes won, is the most decorated journalist in Brazilian history.

Asked in a 2012 interview if it is a good idea for journalists to study journalism, Ribeiro answered the more education, the better. “A country is made by good professionals in all areas.” He lamented that “almost 70% of the adult population in Brazil can not understand ten lines of text” and that Brazilian universities, which given the country's population should be represented among the world's top ten, are not even in the top hundred. “In a country so backward and so needy,” he said, “to be opposed to journalism school, any school, is cynicism or malice.”

In 1981, working as a freelancer, Ribeiro did his first work for TV Globo. His report on the Pantanal region was well received and widely discussed and was invited to work full-time in Rio on the Globo Reporter. His first report, aired on 10 June 1982, was about mining in Serra Pelada, Pará, was the first on that series in which the reporter was seen on-screen rather than just being an off-screen voice.

He returned to São Paulo in 1978 to become editor-in-chief of journalism for TV Tupi, and general director of its program Pinga Fogo. At the same time he managed the newsroom of the Jornal de Hoje in Campinas.

After serving as editor-in-chief of Realidades, he worked from 1973 to 1975 as a reporter for the magazine Veja, also published by Editora Abril.

In the later 1970s, tired of government censorship, Ribeiro stopped writing journalism for a while and instead focused on helping news organizations in São Paulo to modernize their newsrooms. He was director of El Diario, in Ribeirão Preto, in 1975, and of Day and Night, in São José do Rio Preto, in 1977, where he won another Esso Award in the category Regional/Southeast.

Ribeiro went to Vietnam in 1968 to cover the war, and lost the lower part of his left leg in a mine explosion near Quang Tri. He was transported by helicopter to the American hospital in Qui Nhon, where his left leg was amputated just above the ankle, and from there was transferred to the United States for further treatment. He reacted to this incident with equanimity, telling a reporter at Qui Nhon that as soon as he had been able to sit up in bed he had begun writing his story. A photograph of him after the accident appeared on the cover of Realidade.

He went to work in 1962 for Editora Abril in 1962, where he was made editor-in-chief of the magazine Quatro Rodas where he gained attention and notoriety. In 1966, he moved onto the monthly Realidade, also published by Editora Abril, where, he later recalled, the articles were “long and deeply ambitious,” often involving three or four months of investigative reporting.

Ribeiro's father was a small farmer and his mother a housewife. He studied in a public school, where he was editor of the student newspaper. In 1955 Ribeiro went to Rio de Janeiro to attend the Cásper Líbero School of Journalism. He was expelled from the school during his last year because of a strike that he had led.

Ribeiro began his career in journalism in 1955 at Radio Bandeirantes in São Paulo, where he worked the night shift and spent significant time accompanying leading caipira musicians. Soon afterwards he went to work in print journalism, becoming a cub reporter for O Tempo in 1955 and a staffer for the Folha de S.Paulo in June 1956. In 1957, he covered the first Mass held in Brasilia.