User:Wordsmithie.20/sandbox/Sanders, Belinda

Belinda Sanders is an Australian radio news presenter, journalist and producer specialising in broadcast and digital news reporting.

Sanders grew up in the North Queensland town of Mackay, where she started her career with Pioneer News (newspaper), then moved into broadcast journalism taking a an on-air reporting role with Sunshine Television, Mackay. Cementing her reputation as one of the hardest working journalists in Mackay, she took on a reporting role with 4MK Radio at the same time. Sunshine Television recognised Sanders' talent and strong work ethic and she went on to Rockhampton then Cairns, covering news in those cities until she was appointed chief of staff and senior producer in Wide Bay in 1996 - managing three newsrooms in Bundaberg, Hervey Bay and Maryborough.

In 1999, Sanders made the switch from commercial news reporting to take a role with the ABC Northern Tasmania, in Burnie, Tasmania. Sanders was the first bi-media journalist at the ABC, that is, her role included both radio and television broadcast news and web content for the whole north Tasmanian region. In 2000, Sanders took the news editor role for ABC Southern Queensland. A role which included mentoring new staff and reporting news, as well as filing current affairs stories for ABC Landline, Stateline and the national television news service.

Sanders has become a fixture in the Toowoomba and Southern Downs community, and she has called the annual Toowoomba Carnival of Flowers since 2008.

In 2006 she switched to Mornings, a role she still relishes today as it gives her the best of both worlds - reporting current affairs and being able to share the lighter stories of the region.

Over the past two decades, Sanders has covered all the major events of the Southern Downs areas including bushfires, elections, cyclones and the 2011 Grantham Floods, including the inquiry into the the impacts and causes. Over the past two years she has covered the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the region and more recently the 2022 floods, which saw Grantham once again under water, as well as Warwick, Gatton, Toowoomba and Dalby.

In 2015, she travelled to Paris to address UNESCO on the media's role in maintaining world peace. This conference also saw her on panels with other leading journalists workshopping the importance of the role of impartial journalism in developing nations. Sanders was honoured to meet with many world dignitaries and representatives of UNESCO member nations, and delighted when delegates from UNESCO, visited Toowoomba in 2018 in return.

COVID-19 brought new challenges for broadcast news and current affairs in Australia. ABC staff were deemed 'essential workers', as the national broadcaster is the single most important source of news for many people in rural and remote areas.

Sanders has worked at the forefront of journalism during an unprecedented time of change in the industry. The move from newspapers to digital, radio to podcast and television news to streaming services, has seen changes to the industry like never before. Combined with a shift from the daily deadline to the hourly and perpetual deadlines of digital media, Sanders is one of the pioneering broadcast and digital journalists/producers in Australia today.

Sanders lives with her husband, son and slightly embarrassed daughter on the outskirts of Toowoomba.