Heather Abbott

Heather Abbott, Canada, is a television news producer for CBS News in London.

She has reported on a wide range of stories from the Middle East, Europe and Africa. For the past eight years she has reported extensively on the war in Iraq, including the sectarian violence that followed, oil smuggling, and government corruption. She produced a ground-breaking series on Iraqi refugees in Syria, and the plight of Iraqi women in prison. Abbott has also made several trips to Iran, first on the nuclear stand-off, and most recently to cover the disputed elections of June 2009. Before joining CBS, Abbott was a producer for over 15 years with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, first in its radio division, and then as a documentary television producer. Stories included a two part series on a Canadian oil company’s role in Sudan’s civil war; election fraud in Zimbabwe; and a feud among warlords of Northern Afghanistan. In 2002, Abbott won a Gemini award for best news coverage of Iraq, another one for best interview; and in 2001, she was awarded a Gemini for her documentary profile of a former Afghan General. She was a Knight Fellow at Stanford University in 1997.