Tributes flow for stalwart ABC journalist
A veteran ABC journalist has died after a decade-long battle with thyroid cancer, aged just 64.
Former ABC journalist Peter Ryan has died, only weeks after retiring after decades with the national broadcaster.
Ryan, who was 64, had metastatic thyroid cancer, which was first diagnosed in 2014.
The ABC announced his retirement in June, saying he wanted to focus on his wife Mary Cotter, daughter Charlotte, and other family and friends.
On Monday, the network confirmed Ryan’s death in Sydney.
“The ABC is deeply saddened by the death of our great friend and esteemed colleague Peter Ryan,” it said.
“After a distinguished 45-year career in journalism Peter retired from the ABC last month due to ill health. We extend our heartfelt condolences to Peter’s family.”
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ABC News director Justin Stevens said Ryan left a “significant legacy”.
“Through his mentorship, friendship, and professionalism, he directly touched the lives of many at the ABC,” he said.
“Through his journalism, he had a profound impact on the lives of Australians and our society. It was a privilege to know him and work alongside him.”
Ryan was a Walkley award-winner who joined the ABC in 1984. He went on to hold numerous positions, including Washington bureau chief, head of TV news and current affairs in Victoria, executive producer of Business Breakfast, founding editor of Lateline Business, which later became The Business, and the ABC’s business editor.
He was a senior business correspondent from 2016 until he retired.
Former ABC News Breakfast presenter Michael Rowland said Ryan “represented the very best” of the broadcaster.
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“He was scrupulously fair and was committed to accuracy and facts. There was never any agenda in his reporting,” he said.
“That is why he was held in such high regard by his colleagues and the ABC audience. I learnt so much from him.”
Treasurer Jim Chalmers said Ryan’s death was a “devastating loss for Australian journalism and economics”.
“He had an unrivalled talent for drawing out the vital elements of each day’s economic news, a remarkable ability to separate the consequential from the trivial,” Chalmers said.
“We will miss him, we mourn him, and our hearts go out to his loved ones and many admirers.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described Ryan as a legend of Australian journalism.
His journalism career when, straight out of school and aged just 18, he landed a job in 1980 as a copyboy and cadet at Sydney’s Daily Mirror.
“We were still printing newspapers off hot metal. People were smoking in newsrooms and there was a lot of yelling as deadlines ran down to the wire,” Ryan remembered on his retirement.
“My parents were absolutely delighted when I was finally hired by the ABC in 1984. Our TV always seemed to be stuck on Channel 2, we were forced to watch the 7pm news every night and I had to listen to AM and PM in the kitchen.”
He was also noted as a mentor to many younger journalists, founding chairman of the Kennedy Foundation, a trustee on the board of the NSW Journalists Benevolent Fund and having a long-term involvement with journalists’ union, the MEAA.
Ryan was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2022 for his services to journalism.
