Rahni Sadler

Rahni Sadler (born 1972) is an Australian television reporter. She is currently a reporter for the Seven Network's flagship public affairs program, Sunday Night.

Career

After doing work experience in radio, TV and at magazines, Sadler secured her first reporting job at WIN TV, the Nine Network's affiliate in Canberra. She chose Australia's capital because she studied politics at Sydney University, taking part in the Government Honours program. Her break as a correspondent in the Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery came in 1997. She nearly missed out on the job because she was sent on an urgent assignment to cover the Thredbo landslide for WIN News on the day of her job interview with the Seven Network. She approached Seven's bureau chief, Glenn Milne, on the side of the Thredbo Mountain and he agreed to reschedule.

Sadler was a reporter for the Seven Network at its Federal Political Bureau in Canberra from 1997 to 2000, when she accepted a position at Seven's Sydney newsroom. In 2003 she switched to Network Ten where she became a correspondent at the Los Angeles bureau. The Seven Network lured her back in February 2007, although this time in at Los Angeles bureau.^[1] She controversially replaced Seven's Los Angeles correspondent Louise Pennell, who was informed of her impending replacement by the bureau's chief cameraman, Trent Miller,^[2] who was Sadler's boyfriend. Miller revealed the details to Pennell after another member of Seven's LA bureau told her accidentally. Pennell then launched legal action and later reached an out-of-court settlement.^[3]

In 2010, she returned to Australia after more than seven years as a correspondent in the U.S. and took up a position as senior reporter for the Seven Network's Sunday Night program.^[4] She is also a fill-in presenter on Weekend Sunrise.

In February 2012, Sadler was charged after convicted murderer Bradley John Murdoch was interviewed from his Northern Territory jail, which was then broadcast on Sunday Night on 31 July 2011. In the Northern Territory it is illegal to communicate with a prisoner without the permission of the director of the Northern Territory Correctional Services.^[5] Sadler escaped conviction and was granted a one-year good behaviour bond.

Sadler is noted for her enthusiastic coverage of the inauguration of U.S. President Barack Obama from Washington in January 2009.^[6]

She has twice been recognised by the National Press Club in its Health Journalism Awards. In 2012 she was presented with the Victor Chang Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Personal life

Sadler attended Santa Sabina College in the Sydney suburb of Strathfield, a day school for girls. She completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Sydney University, participating in the honours program in the Political Science (Government) Department.

Sadler is the sister of Matthew Sadler,^[2] a TV journalist at Network Ten. Another brother, Vernon Sadler, is a social worker in a remote Aboriginal community. Her maternal grandmother, Joyce Robertson, was editor of the rural New South Wales newspaper The Coonamble Times.

References