Gavin Hewitt is a British journalist and presenter, currently British Broadcasting Corporation News"s News Editor.
Education
Hewitt was educated at the independent school Street John"s School in Leatherhead, Surrey and Street John"s College, University of Durham where he reported for a live student programme on British Broadcasting Corporation Radio Durham entitled University Termtime.
Career
He was formerly its Europe Editor, a post he held between September 2009 to the autumn of 2014, and became News Editor to cover a wider brief. Prior to his work at the British Broadcasting Corporation, he lived in Canada and worked as a correspondent for Canadian television Hewitt joined the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Panorama as a presenter in 1984 and was in East Berlin when the Berlin Wall came down.
He conducted the first British television interview with Oliver North after the Iran Contra scandal, and later wrote a book about the hostage crisis in the Lebanon.
While working at Panorama, Hewitt made "The Case Of India One" which led to an investigation into police corruption. He also made the film "Escape From Tiananmen", which broke the story of Operation Yellow Bird - the underground network used to smuggle student leaders and others out of China.
He has been the British Broadcasting Corporation"s Washington Correspondent on several occasions, and has made three films about President Bill Clinton, including All The President"s Women, and The Shaming Of The President. In 2003 he was one of three reporters to use David Kelly as a source for the British Broadcasting Corporation story claiming that the British Government had "sexed up" a dossier describing Iraq"s weapons of mass destruction.
He later gave evidence on the affair to the Hutton Inquiry.
In 2008 Hewitt covered the United States Presidential Election primaries and Democratic Nominee for President Barack Obama"s visit to the Middle East and Europe in the summer of 2008. Hewitt also covered Barack Obama"s campaign for President during the autumn of that year, broadcasting from Grant Park when Obama was elected the first African American President of the United States on Tuesday 4 November 2008 working with Senior Producer Ian Sherwood and Picture Correspondent Rob Magee He then also covered Obama"s Inauguration on 20 January 2009. During the War in Georgia in August 2008 Hewitt and producer and cameraman came under fire from a Russian fighter plane whilst covering the War on the front line.