Vale: Sean Flannery

Journalist Sean Flannery, who worked for both Network TEN and Channel Seven, has died after a long battle with cancer.

Flannery worked at both 2UE and 2SM before television journalism, and went on to present the news at Seven in Adelaide.

“The night after an ad-lib awry he appeared with gaffer tape over his mouth,” Norm Lipson told the Daily Telegraph.

“He was one of those old-time larrikin journos who just endeared himself to you.”

Flannery was also the first to report Lindy Chamberlain’s murder conviction in 1982. He was once sacked by 2GB for interviewing 2UE’s Alan Jones on air about the South Sydney football team.

News Limited chairman and CEO John Hartigan described him as one of the great characters of radio and TV reporting.

“Funny, smart – one of the last swashbucklers of journalism,” he said.