More haste, less free speech
As the UK debates whether to criminalize slogans such as "globalist the intifada", in Queensland, Australia, the state government banned the phrase in March.
Amy Fallon
Journalist and Media Consultant
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Hi, I'm Amy Fallon. Fallon, as in the same surname as Jimmy, that great comedian who is no relation, but this is topical considering last year I took up stand-up comedy. (See here).
I've been EVERYWHERE. I've lived on and reported from five continents (Australia, UK, Africa, Asia and North America) and my byline has appeared in a plethora of outlets. I've worked for the Australian national newswire agency and also from the fast-paced newsrooms of most of the UK national papers including The Guardian, The Sunday Times and The Independent, among many more. (Fun fact: I once spoke to Murdoch on the phone!)
I've also been a foreign correspondent in Uganda, South Africa, Cambodia, and Bangladesh. I've worked for Devex, AFP, Index on Censorship, NPR, Telegraph, The i Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, The Daily and Sunday Telegraph Sydney, Fodor's, Adventure.com, Mail & Guardian South Africa, The Continent Africa, Crikey Australia, The Saturday Paper, Al Jazeera, Thomson Reuters Foundation and MORE.
Now, I'm also approached to help organisations and people achieve more visibility as a PR and media consultant - and you should definitely also hire me!
Highlights in 2026 as a journalist alone include exclusive and original pieces that I've found and written for The Good Weekend in the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, The Saturday Paper, The Big Issue, Crikey, Women's Agenda and Junkee, among others. I've also written opinion for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
Some of my other stories in the past have gone viral on X. You can see some more reporting highlights here.
As a media consultant, I landed a TV interview for a small charity with France 24 - and more for others. You can see this work here. I've placed coverage for organisations with The Guardian US, CBC, AAP, The Telegraph, NPR, AFP, AP, SBS Australia, Radio France Internationale, The Globe and Mail, Mongabay, EURACTIV, Al Jazeera, and others, too.
My work has led to groups receiving awards, funding and other opportunities.
I became passionate about human rights in Uganda, so I devoted five years to obtaining a master's degree in this. Remotely. I did my dissertation during lockdown. Not easy and a huge commitment.
I write about travel, culture and lifestyle, too. I took up running in Uganda and then did the Toronto Marathon and a half-marathon in Johannesburg. Not easy. There's a pattern here...
I am invested in every person I work with. I build rapport with people easily. Some of my favourite client reviews proclaim that I was the rare journalist to understand their work, to get the key quotes and to dig deeper to see the story in print. That I'm funny - in a good way. And this was before I started comedy!
I started offering workshops and webinars on how to secure media coverage and write op-eds over two years ago, which have been a great success. I realised that I could help people by arming them with the skills and knowledge that I have accumulated over the past two decades.
I rate kindness and empathy. I volunteer regularly. One of my best experiences has been helping rough sleepers in London during Christmas with charity Crisis four times. I also went to Birmingham to support the bin strikers (!), and volunteered during the Australian 2025 election and the 2024 UK one.
My expertise in building social networks means that I've accumulated over 12,000 followers on X.
Oh and another fun fact: I once acted as an extra in a Bollywood movie with Kylie (Minogue, not Kardashian - that's how much of a veteran I am). But I was paid for this! And you should also hire me!
You can get in touch via amy@amyfallon.com
Published work
The Big Issue Australia
When the 2026 Census comes knocking, every Australian needs to be seen, heard and counted - including people who are experiencing homelessness. Here’s how this year’s national count is going beyond the data to meet people where they’re at. This was the cover story for this issue.
Looking to treat dementia or depression? Try a stand-up comedy class
Tracy was at the front of a room inside London’s majestic Royal Albert Hall, a stand-up star in the making. As a homeless woman trying to survive on the city’s unrelenting streets, she was used to being invisible. But for one afternoon in March, all eyes were on her – and she was bringing this house down, so to speak.“I looked over and I saw the most beaming human being,” says Louisa Jackson (or “Lu”, as she’s better known), a London-based Australian tech entrepreneur. “To me, it was a lightbul...
What Does an Intimacy Coordinator Do?
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From Nigel Farage to Giggle for Girls, this US Christian group has fingerprints everywhere. Who are the ADF?
Sall Grover, the founder of the now-defunct female-only social media platform Giggle for Girls, lost a court battle last year after the ruling determined that the exclusion of a transgender woman from the female-only app constituted gender identity discrimination.
After she appealed the decision and the Federal Court upheld the ruling, one group emerged to support her: the Alliance Defending Freedom International, or ADF, a US Christian legal advocacy organisation, which declared the decision...
After she appealed the decision and the Federal Court upheld the ruling, one group emerged to support her: the Alliance Defending Freedom International, or ADF, a US Christian legal advocacy organisation, which declared the decision...
Exclusive: Catholic bishops lobby Albanese over census question on religion
As the Australian Bureau of Statistics was preparing changes to a census question about religious belief, senior Catholic bishops privately lobbied the prime minister and succeeded in having the question unchanged in the coming census.According to documents obtained under freedom of information laws, the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, the national body of the church’s bishops, wrote to Anthony Albanese and the Australian Bureau of Statistics in March 2024 as the changes were being consi...
The CEO reshaping Women Deliver after its reckoning
Maliha Khan arrived as president and CEO of Women Deliver in 2022 as a “direct result” and as part of an “existential transformation” following allegations of racism and harassment within the global advocacy organization, she said.A queer immigrant woman of color and a Muslim, her candid acknowledgement of her sexuality from the first day in the job marked a milestone in her professional journey. Nearly four years on, as the group gears up to host its flagship conference in Melbourne from April...
Canada has banned employers from ghosting job candidates. Will the idea catch on?
After three job interviews in London, Laura Gemma Bond travelled back to Cambridge and waited for the call that never came. Despite paying for train fares and preparing for each meeting, the marketing professional with 12 years’ experience received no response at all.
“It’s rude, it is unprofessional, it is not acceptable,” said Bond, who documented her job search on TikTok, where her posts have reached 2.3m views.
Being “ghosted” by employers after interviews has become a familiar frustration f...
“It’s rude, it is unprofessional, it is not acceptable,” said Bond, who documented her job search on TikTok, where her posts have reached 2.3m views.
Being “ghosted” by employers after interviews has become a familiar frustration f...
Gaza Zines: Creative stories and hope from a war torn land
Shahd Alnaami did not write before the genocide. It was only after she lost a friend — one of the more than 70,000 people killed in Israel's war on Gaza — that she began putting words to the page.
"It's our duty to remember them and to make everyone remember them," she tells The New Arab over Zoom, speaking from the roof of her uncle's house in Gaza. Her family's home next door was destroyed in the bombardment, and the rooftop has become the quiet place she escapes to.
"Writing is the weapon t...
"It's our duty to remember them and to make everyone remember them," she tells The New Arab over Zoom, speaking from the roof of her uncle's house in Gaza. Her family's home next door was destroyed in the bombardment, and the rooftop has become the quiet place she escapes to.
"Writing is the weapon t...
Human Rights Watch’s new chief returns to steady ship in a ‘perfect storm’
Philippe Bolopion is returning to lead Human Rights Watch at a time which he described as “a perfect storm for the human rights movement.”With democratic freedoms declining globally and geopolitical tensions rising, the longtime HRW insider said the organization must refocus on its core mission at a moment when “the entire human rights project is in peril.”Bolopion, 52, first began his career as a journalist covering the United Nations during the optimistic early 2000s.
Philippe Bolopion is ret...
Philippe Bolopion is ret...
Margot Robbie and I started out with ‘bogan’ accents. I’ve still got mine
I was standing outside the Australian High Commission in London last May, volunteering during the federal election, when the question came, as I knew it would, from a fellow expatriate. “What part of Australia are you from? You have a broad accent.” Then, a weird look.Recently, actor Margot Robbie, who was born in Dalby, Queensland – and stars in a screen adaptation of the English classic Wuthering Heights, currently playing in cinemas – revealed to The Graham Norton Show she had needed a dialec...
Stand up and deliver
"My wife doesn’t know I’m here,” a stranger
admitted to me: “It’s like a fetish.” We weren’t
embarking upon an a!air, mind you: we had
both signed up for a weekend crash course in stand-up.
admitted to me: “It’s like a fetish.” We weren’t
embarking upon an a!air, mind you: we had
both signed up for a weekend crash course in stand-up.
Australia cracks down on protest - Index on Censorship
Australia has been described as having some of the “democratic world’s most draconian anti-protest laws” after a state government invoked special powers ahead of the Israeli president’s visit on Monday.
On the first day of Herzog’s visit, there have been reports of police using pepper spray on protesters in Sydney, as hundreds tried to march despite protest restrictions, as well as in Victoria, where demonstrations were also held.
Nationwide demonstrations were set to take place against the five...
On the first day of Herzog’s visit, there have been reports of police using pepper spray on protesters in Sydney, as hundreds tried to march despite protest restrictions, as well as in Victoria, where demonstrations were also held.
Nationwide demonstrations were set to take place against the five...
Why human rights defenders say the UK’s quiet policy shift matters
Activists in the global south have accused the global north of weakening support for them at the very moment when oppression is rising, after the United Kingdom government watered down its support for human rights defenders. The U.K. quietly published its updated “guiding principles on supporting human rights defenders” just before Christmas. Removed from the previous 2019 version were seven key commitments, including regular two-way thematic exchanges between defenders and embassies, supporting...
Assange accuses Nobel Foundation of encouraging US actions in Venezuela via Machado’s Peace Prize
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has accused the Nobel Foundation of helping encourage the Trump administration to interfere in Venezuela, via its decision to award the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado. This follows a legal complaint he filed in December against the foundation.
“The number of victims whose deaths have been abetted by the misappropriation [of the Nobel Prize Committee’s funds and resources] has increased by more than a hundred,” Assa...
“The number of victims whose deaths have been abetted by the misappropriation [of the Nobel Prize Committee’s funds and resources] has increased by more than a hundred,” Assa...
Are abortion rights at risk as African governments negotiate with US?
A new regional study shows that abortion rights in West and Central Africa often exist in law but not in reality — a disconnect researchers fear could deepen as African governments negotiate new, bilateral health agreements with the United States.Research, conducted by Rutgers and the Centre de Recherche en Reproduction Humaine et en Démographie, or CERRHUD, found that women and girls in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Togo, and Cameroon faced barriers in accessing safe abortions, including...
How Australia's social media ban threatens free expression - Index on Censorship
The Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up in celebration of Australia's social media ban. Credit: Australian Associated Press/Alamy Live NewsRead Index’s statement on why Australia’s ban on social media for under 16s is disproportionate
When Australia passed a world-first social media ban for teens, there was a display of national pride from the prime minister, and even the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up in the country’s national colours, green and gold, to celebrate the historic achievement.
The l...
When Australia passed a world-first social media ban for teens, there was a display of national pride from the prime minister, and even the Sydney Harbour Bridge was lit up in the country’s national colours, green and gold, to celebrate the historic achievement.
The l...
'I'm a TERF': Inside the UK's version of Sky News — and Trump's new media partner
“I hope you like TERFS and Jews,” quips Josh Howie, host of GB News’ Free Speech Nation, a program that involves guests fielding live questions from the crowd about the news of the day.
Debuting on British free-to-air TV just over four years ago and last year beating BBC News and UK Sky News three days in a row, it’s safe to say that GB News is one of a kind. I’ve been watching it regularly now for months — partly out of fascination, partly as an exercise in remaining outside my echo chamber...
Debuting on British free-to-air TV just over four years ago and last year beating BBC News and UK Sky News three days in a row, it’s safe to say that GB News is one of a kind. I’ve been watching it regularly now for months — partly out of fascination, partly as an exercise in remaining outside my echo chamber...
Can a powdered egg a day keep malnutrition away? Uganda thinks so
When Ugandan mechanical engineer Joel Guma launched a food manufacturing and packaging business nearly a decade ago, he wasn’t targeting malnourished children or refugees. His first customers were bakeries, restaurants, hotels, and confectioners in Uganda and the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. They wanted Pristine Foods Limited’s products — high-quality pasteurized, homogenized, and filtered liquid eggs, which were first developed in 2020 — mainly because eggs in parts of East Africa...
Are donors accidentally funding groups not aligned with their values?
A group campaigning against abortion rights in Sierra Leone received funding from one of the world’s most prominent human rights donors — raising alarm among activists about how so-called progressive aid may be inadvertently funneled to anti-rights groups.Christian Aid received a $66,000 grant from the Open Society Foundations to implement a women’s economic inclusion project. It partnered with the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone, or IRCSL — a conservative group opposing abortion rights...
Rotarian brings home mental health support
By Amy Fallon
When Ugandan village elders meet with Stuart Raymond Kasule about supporting people with mental health struggles, they volunteer ideas to show more empathy.
They want to know, for example, how to open a conversation with a person who is suffering. “That shows you that the people are crying out to say, we need help, we need support,” Kasule says. He travels from his adopted home of Australia to his Ugandan homeland about twice a year to share his training on mental well-bei...
When Ugandan village elders meet with Stuart Raymond Kasule about supporting people with mental health struggles, they volunteer ideas to show more empathy.
They want to know, for example, how to open a conversation with a person who is suffering. “That shows you that the people are crying out to say, we need help, we need support,” Kasule says. He travels from his adopted home of Australia to his Ugandan homeland about twice a year to share his training on mental well-bei...
'First responder' charities call for investigation into devastating foreign aid cuts
Thousands of small charities have implored the government to urgently investigate improvements to support and funding, as some vital organisations are now facing closure following the decision to cut foreign aid. As Britain is warned it will miss the Sustainable Development Goals [SDGs] deadline – of 2030 – campaigners fear millions around the world will be left lacking education, proper healthcare, food, and routes out of poverty.The Small International Development Charities Network [SIDCN], co...
Is Substack's ascent in Australia a tipping point for traditional media?
Substack, the widely used publishing and social media platform, recently surpassed 5 million paid subscriptions globally, with tens of millions of total active subscribers.
You might recognise some writers and journalists on it, such as Rick Morton, John Birmingham, Bec Shaw, Tim Burrowes, Dan Barrett, Jonathan Green, Joel Jenkins, Mia Freedman, Clare Stephens, Jess Hill, Bri Lee, Cameron Wilson, Gideon Haigh, Peter Lalor, Sam Perry, Nick Feik and Malcolm Turnbull. Some are Crikey contributor...
You might recognise some writers and journalists on it, such as Rick Morton, John Birmingham, Bec Shaw, Tim Burrowes, Dan Barrett, Jonathan Green, Joel Jenkins, Mia Freedman, Clare Stephens, Jess Hill, Bri Lee, Cameron Wilson, Gideon Haigh, Peter Lalor, Sam Perry, Nick Feik and Malcolm Turnbull. Some are Crikey contributor...
UK small charities brace for crisis amid aid rollback
The last thing that Olivia Barker White wanted to do was to start a charity. She was aware of the “white savior” trope, she said. But feeling that there were not many organizations helping to properly care for slum children in Uganda and reunite them with local families, she felt compelled to. Since 2009, Kids Club Kampala, or KCK, which Barker White co-founded and now runs, has helped over 1.5 million people across multiple slum communities in Uganda. Now, though, they’re bracing for a massive...
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