Chris Reason
 |
Chris Reason | |
|---|---|
 Reason and wife Kathryn in 2012 | |
| Born | Chris Reason 1 October 1965 |
| Occupation(s) | Journalist, News Presenter |
| Employer | Seven Network |
| Spouse | Kathryn Robinson |
| Children | Samuel and Lucy |
Chris Reason is a senior reporter and presenter for Seven News in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. He was named Australian Journalist of the Year (2015) after being awarded the Graham Perkin Award for his coverage of the Lindt Cafe siege in December 2014.
Career
Reason began his career in newspapers - first at The Redland Times then the daily metro newspaper The Sun in Brisbane. In 1989 he was signed by the Nine Network as a reporter for their News Bureau on the Gold Coast.
Reason moved to Seven News in Brisbane as a Crime Reporter in 1990. He was appointed to Seven's London Bureau in 1992, the youngest correspondent in the network's history. In 1993 he was appointed Bureau Chief. After 4 years in the Bureau, he returned to Seven's Sydney Newsroom as a Senior Network Reporter.
In 2002, he was announced as co-host of the revamped Sunrise alongside Melissa Doyle. In September 2002, it was discovered that Reason had multiple cancerous tumours in his abdomen. He was forced to take a leave of absence for six months to undertake chemotherapy and surgery.[1] He was replaced by David Koch. The cancer was a metastasis of the testicular cancer he had fought four years earlier. Reason missed an annual health check up in 2001 while covering the September 11 terror attacks in the United States, and he says it almost cost him his life. In multiple interviews since, Reason has warned young men to never miss a health check-up.[1]
In 2003, after recovering, Reason was appointed the presenter of Seven Morning News. The following year, he was made presenter of Sunday Sunrise In 2005, he was named co-host of Weekend Sunrise alongside Lisa Wilkinson, but was later replaced by Deal or No Deal host Andrew O'Keefe. Reason returned to full-time reporting as Senior Network Correspondent.
While reporting for Seven News, Reason has filed stories from many of the world's hot spots - including Bosnia, Northern Ireland, the Middle East, Afghanistan and the Pacific rim. He covered the Boxing Day Tsunami in Thailand and then Banda Aceh; the September 11 attacks; the Fukushima nuclear disaster; Barack Obama's election; Nelson Mandela's funeral; the 7/7 London terror attacks; the East Timor transition in 2000; Schapelle Corby's sentencing; Princess Diana's funeral; the Hong Kong handover; the Oscar Pistorius trial; the Kobe earthquake; the 2000 Fiji Coup; the 1997 Thredbo landslide; the Beaconsfield mine disaster and Prince William and Catherine's wedding. He has covered multiple Federal and State elections and eight Olympic Games.
In 2015 he won Australian journalism's highest accolade - named the Journalist of the Year after winning the Graham Perkin Award for his coverage of the Lindt Cafe siege. He has won two Logie Awards for News Reporting and been a multiple Walkley finalist.
Reason is officially a back-up presenter for many of the Seven News programs, including Seven Morning News, Seven Afternoon News and Seven News Sydney.
Personal life
Reason was born on 1 October 1965. He has one brother Martin and one sister Emma. His father died from brain cancer in 2006.[1] He attended Villanova College in the Brisbane suburb of Coorparoo and the University of Queensland (BA). Reason married journalist Kathryn Robinson in 2003.[1] They became parents to twins, Sam and Lucy,[1] on 6 August 2007. The birth was announced the following morning on Ten Early News, which Robinson formerly presented, and then that evening on Seven News where Reason is a reporter.