{"id":9964,"date":"2025-07-21T03:59:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:59:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9964\/"},"modified":"2025-07-21T03:59:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-21T03:59:10","slug":"abc-journalist-peter-ryan-oam-dies-aged-64-after-retiring-last-month-due-to-ill-health","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/9964\/","title":{"rendered":"ABC journalist Peter Ryan OAM dies aged 64 after retiring last month due to ill health"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>ABC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.9news.com.au\/journalist\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"journalist\">journalist<\/a> Peter Ryan OAM has died aged 64, just a month after retiring due to ill health.<\/p>\n<p>The former ABC chief business and finance correspondent left the ABC in June before moving into palliative care for metastatic thyroid cancer.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan was first diagnosed in 2014 following a distinguished career with the government broadcaster, including a period as ABC Washington bureau chief and head of TV news and current affairs in Melbourne.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/52387360-92e7-4df2-8c60-f2320c50a8c4.jpeg\"   alt=\"ABC journalist Peter Ryan\"\/>Peter Ryan, ABC&#8217;s former chief business and finance correspondent, has died aged 64. (ABC)<\/p>\n<p>In 2022, he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his service to journalism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Peter leaves a significant legacy. Through his mentorship, friendship and professionalism he directly touched the lives of many at the ABC,&#8221; said ABC news director Justin Stevens.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through his journalism he had a profound impact on the lives of Australians and our society.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was a privilege to know him and work alongside him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Upon announcement of his retirement in late June, Treasurer Jim Chalmers described Ryan as an &#8220;absolute legend&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every day as you wake up and you think about what&#8217;s happening in the economy, if you only needed to listen to one voice to be sure that you got it\ufeffs essential elements, it would be Peter&#8217;s,&#8221; Chalmers said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/https:\/\/prod.static9.net.au\/fs\/e1f86211-cc0c-4193-abfe-6700574c848f.jpeg\"   alt=\"Journalist Peter Ryan\"\/>In 2022, he was awarded the Order of Australia medal for his service to journalism. (ABC News: John Gunn)<\/p>\n<p>Ryan began his career as a copy boy at the now-defunct Sydney Daily Mirror in 1980 at age 18.<\/p>\n<p>It was a time, he once said, where people smoked in newsrooms and newspapers were still printed off hot metal.<\/p>\n<p>Before his retirement, Ryan had some parting words of advice from his nearly half a century in journalism.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;One strong message I have is, never let anyone tell you the good old days were really that good \u2013 that&#8217;s a bit of a myth,&#8221; Ryan said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d like to thank the ABC for taking so many risks with me over the years, giving me my dream of a foreign posting in Washington and then into big editorial roles.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But for me in the end it&#8217;s all about being a reporter out in the real world telling it as it is. I&#8217;m always chuffed when I hear people tell me you&#8217;re able to take complex issues and break them down into three good parts.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When someone tells me that, that&#8217;s more important than a whole lot of awards.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Ryan leaves behind his wife, Mary, and a daughter, Charlotte.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ABC journalist Peter Ryan OAM has died aged 64, just a month after retiring due to ill health.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-9964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}