Gavin Hewitt (born 1951,

Penge Penge () is a suburb of South East Greater London, London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross. Etymology The name ''Penge'' is first attested in charter of ...

, London) is a British journalist and presenter, currently

BBC News BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broad ...

's News Editor. 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.

Early life and education

Son of Rev. Thomas Hewitt (died 1964), of

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, and Daffodil Anne (died 2007), née Thorne, Hewitt was educated at the

independent school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

St John's School in

Leatherhead Leatherhead is a town in the Mole Valley district of Surrey, England, about south of Central London. The settlement grew up beside a ford on the River Mole, from which its name is thought to derive. During the late Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon ...

Surrey Surrey () is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Greater London to the northeast, Kent to the east, East Sussex, East and West Sussex to the south, and Hampshire and Berkshire to the wes ...

and St John's College,

University of Durham Durham University (legally the University of Durham) is a collegiate public research university in Durham, England, founded by an Act of Parliament in 1832 and incorporated by royal charter in 1837. It was the first recognised university to ...

where he reported for a live student programme on BBC Radio Durham entitled ''University Termtime''. His sister, Anne, married Rev. Anthony Proctor-Beauchamp, son of Sir Ivor Proctor-Beauchamp, 8th Baronet. His brother is Garth Hewitt, the singer-songwriter, Anglican priest and social justice advocate.

Career

Prior to his work at the BBC, Hewitt lived in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

and worked as a correspondent for the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

. Hewitt joined the BBC's ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek language, Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any Obtuse angle, wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography (panoramic photography), film, seismic image ...

'' as a presenter in 1984 and was in East Berlin when the

Berlin Wall The Berlin Wall (, ) was a guarded concrete Separation barrier, barrier that encircled West Berlin from 1961 to 1989, separating it from East Berlin and the East Germany, German Democratic Republic (GDR; East Germany). Construction of the B ...

came down. He conducted the first British television interview with

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Sec ...

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 BBC's Washington Correspondent on several occasions, and has made three films about President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...

, 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 BBC 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 The Hutton Inquiry was a 2003 judicial inquiry in the UK chaired by Brian Hutton, Baron Hutton, Lord Hutton, who was appointed by the Labour Party (UK), Labour government to investigate the controversial circumstances surrounding the death of Dav ...

. In 2008 Hewitt covered the United States Presidential Election primaries and Democratic Nominee for President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

'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 Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

in August 2008 Hewitt, senior producer Ian Sherwood and picture correspondent Rob Magee came under fire from a Russian fighter plane whilst covering the War on the front line.

Awards

Hewitt won the

Royal Television Society The Royal Television Society (RTS) is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present, and future. It is the oldest television society in the world. It currently has fourteen r ...

Award in 2001 for his coverage of the

Oldham Oldham is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies amongst the Pennines on elevated ground between the rivers River Irk, Irk and River Medlock, Medlock, southeast of Rochdale, and northeast of Manchester. It is the administrative cent ...

riots and also won the Broadcast Award for "England's Shame", an investigation into football hooliganism at

Euro 2000 The 2000 UEFA European Football Championship, also known as Euro 2000, was the 11th UEFA European Championship, a football tournament held every four years and organised by UEFA, the sport's governing body in Europe. The finals tournament was ...

. His report on the Madrid bombings also won a

Bafta The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA, ) is an independent trade association and charity that supports, develops, and promotes the arts of film, television and video games in the United Kingdom. In addition to its annual awa ...

award..

Other work

In 1997 Hewitt wrote and presented the

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's oldest and flagship channel, and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television b ...

tribute to

Princess Diana Diana, Princess of Wales (born Diana Frances Spencer; 1 July 1961 – 31 August 1997), was a member of the British royal family. She was the first wife of Charles III (then Prince of Wales) and mother of Princes William ...

and in 1998 made ''Charles: A Life in Waiting - a portrait of

Prince Charles Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

at 50'' for Panorama and the US Arts and Entertainment channel. He has also worked for the BBC's Natural History Unit making two programmes about the ''Land Of The Tiger'', and wrote and presented ''Another Silent Spring'' about the effect of pesticides on wildlife. In 2004 he presented '' Crisis Command - Could you run the country?'' - a BBC TV show where three people are given the chance to take ministerial decisions in a real-time dramatisation of a potential national emergency (flooding, terrorist attack etc.). He has written ''A Soul on Ice'' - a book about his time as a journalist.Hewitt, G. (2005), ''A Soul on Ice: A Life in News'', Pan,

References

External links

Gavin Hewitt's role in the David Kelly affair, from the GuardianGavin Hewitt profile from the BBC press office
*

at BBC Media Centre {{DEFAULTSORT:Hewitt, Gavin Alumni of St John's College, Durham English autobiographers British male journalists BBC newsreaders and journalists People educated at St John's School, Leatherhead Living people 1951 births