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Amy Fallon

Need a widely-published journalist who can find and write compelling stories or a media consultant who can help get yours in the news? 

Hi, I'm Amy. I'm a journalist and media professional with two decades of experience working for a plethora of global media outlets. You can see my work below. It has had a strong impact on readers. My efforts have led to organisations receiving awards, funding and other opportunities. 

I have reported from the newsrooms of major newspapers and magazines around the world and from the field as a foreign correspondent. I am most passionate about human rights and social justice but write about travel and culture, too. 

My passion for storytelling that drives me to seek and share stories that matter is backed up by a master's degree in human rights. I also have skills in content creation, press release writing, op-ed placement and social media management.

Besides working as a journalist, I offer training and coaching to organisations and individuals to teach them how to find, pitch, place and follow up stories - and what to do next. 

Please browse my published work below and click here for testimonials. 

You can contact me on amy@amyfallon.com or on +44 7494188269 or + 61 451 072 181 (WhatsApp). 

I'm widely followed on X and LinkedIn and am also now on Bluesky where you can follow me too. 

Published work

Devex •

Does the consultancy model need an overhaul? These agencies think so

Does the consultancy model need an
overhaul? These agencies think so

Several women-led organizations are trying to reshape the development consultancy world to address issues such as unpaid assignments, inequitable payment, and consultant burnout.

As a consultant with an extensive period of work spanning 25 years in the development space, communications specialist Deborah Walter is used to looking for the next contract while working on the current one. But in the past few years, she has noticed one big trend related to the job search.

“There seems to be a lack of understanding and under-valuing of consultants’
time, energy, and creative intellectual property,” South Africa-based Walter,
who co-runs social change agency Community Media for Development
Productions on the side, told Devex.
In the past, she’s been asked to develop a hypothetical communications strategy
framework along with press releases, social media posts, and talking points for
interviews plus proposed campaign brand ideas and initial mock-ups and videos
for potential work with several organizations, which, as a busy wife and mother,
Walter brands “unreasonable.”
As the founder and managing director of recently rebranded social change agency Comotion, one of several women-led organizations now trying to reshape the development consultancy world so that others aren’t just talking the talk but are also walking it, Rachel Firth agrees.
“I think we've all likely had experiences of going for job interviews, having to
basically write strategies as part of the interview process, then not getting the
job, and you're wondering ‘Well how many of those ideas are they going to take
from that and now use?’” she told Devex.
“That's your intellectual property — and you should be paid for it.”
Comotion, a global network of activists, strategists, campaigners, and creatives
spanning all regions and fields of work, formerly known as Global Office
Consulting and WomenInDev, was set up by London-based Firth in 2015 in
response to a traditional consultancy model that she said was broken. Firth’s
previous experience includes roles with the International Confederation of
Midwives, The Wellbeing Foundation Africa, and Worldwide Helpers.
The agency — which offers a range of services from strategy development to
proposal writing to training and curricula development and has worked for the
Global Fund for Women, the Global Alliance for Green and Gender Action, and
Mama Cash among others — has committed to paying all of their
consultants for any test that they ask them to undertake for any potential work.
Al Jazeera •

‘Genocide-free’ cola makes a splash in the United Kingdom

London, United Kingdom – On a sunny autumn day, the Hiba Express – a fast food chain in Holborn, a bustling central London neighbourhood packed with restaurants, bookstores and shops – is full of diners. Above Hiba is Palestine House, a multistorey gathering place for Palestinians and their supporters, built in the style of a traditional Arabic house with stone walls and a central courtyard with a fountain.
Osama Qashoo, a charismatic man who wears his hair pulled back in a bun and has a thick b...
Devex •

Soccer and science: Can global health learn from FIFA's benefit sharing?

When the Paris Peace Forum nonprofit began working on pandemic preparedness to support the global health community's efforts in the COVID-19 response, they discovered a “profound and entirely understandable sense of injustice” expressed by the scientists in Botswana and South Africa who identified the omicron variant. “They had discovered and provided the world with the knowledge and data to combat these pathogens, yet they were the last to access medical products deriving from their discovery,”...
Devex •

'Two is better than one': Why some NGOs are choosing co-leadership

When NGO GNP+, the Global Network of People Living with HIV, embarked on its 2021 search for not one but two bosses for what one of its co-leaders now calls an “arranged marriage,” their board chair was doubtful.

“When role-share was first suggested as an alternative model of leadership I had questions — will this be efficient, what about egos, will it cause confusion with external representation?” said Jacquelyne Alesi, the chair of the GNP+ board, on the organization’s site. “However, having looked at the idea in more detail I now see co-leadership through a new lens of mutual accountability, flexibility, and support — all central to a feminist leadership model.”
Adventure.com •

Ranking destinations is ridiculous and needs to stop, stat

Having been named the ‘world’s most liveable’ city too many times to count, Vancouver already had an impressively stocked trophy cabinet when it was crowned the globe’s ‘most friendly city’ in 2019. Cut to 2022 and another poll rolls around, this time ranking Ryan Reynolds’ hometown in the worst places for expats to live. Apparently the city was now full of not-so-friendly locals. 
While planning a trip to Vancouver last year, a place I’d dreamed of visiting, I pored over all these views/ranking...
Index on Censorship magazine •

An agency for those denied agency

In 2012 and 2013, during a massive explosion of online Sikh education, one man had a vision. The late Bhai Jagrai Singh was an Oxford graduate and former British Army officer who gave up a successful finance career to found the Sikh Press Association in London one year later. Today SikhPA provides multi-platform content including editorial copy, news, images, infographics, video content, listing information and data to journalists and newsrooms all around the world.

A news agency for a faith that isn’t bigger than one per cent of the population of any country such as the UK, Canada or Australia, where there are the largest numbers of Sikhs outside India, and run by a team of just two is a big deal. The news agency has provided
coverage of the 2020 and 2021 farmer’s protest against three laws passed by the Indian Parliament, and the assassination of Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Canada in October 2023.

Deepa Singh, also known as Kaldip Singh Lehal is the founder of the group Sikh Youth UK who was arrested at Gatwick airport while returning to the UK and subjected to a humiliating detainment and “interrogation…like a terrorist”, he claims, under the
government’s  counterterror law in December. He’s also given Sikh PA interviews. “If it weren’t for the Sikh Press Association, a lot of Sikh voices,
especially ours wouldn't be heard,” says Deepa.

But “censorship and targeted interference remain barriers” to the agency’s work, say Everything 13 (E13), the charity that Bhai Jagrai

Singh started to launch projects like Sikh PA. Its press officers have received threatening phone calls after covering certain issues, while online death threats are a frequent occurrence says Jasveer Singh. Originally from the UK, he’s now based in British Columbia (BC), Canada, which has a large Sikh population, working for the agency from there. “There have also been character attacks which involve tarnishing the reputation of staff, legal threats and even efforts to have the association labelled an extremist organisation,” says Jasveer.

He says that while some of those behind these may be “Indian nationalist bots” and some may not be real people, “if they’re willing to threaten someone like me, then the people that are active who are bringing thousands together to be part of this movement…they want them killed”. A former staff member was also prevented from entering India because of his journalism, says Jasveer.
Because the West “became apathetic to Indian interference, overlooking it for trade deals,” borders do not keep the community safe, he explains. As support for Khalistan and criticism of India has increased and India has stepped up its efforts to silence activists, enclaves in the diaspora where violent criminal Indian nationalist gangs work have appeared, he claims.

“But Sikh faith is entwined with tales of courage and sacrifice,” says Jasveer adding that carrying out the work of Bhai Jagrai Singh, who died in 2017 age just 39, is a “task of honour”. “We are the voice for the voiceless, a megaphone for the unheard of our community,” says
Jasveer. “That must continue regardless.”
The Bookseller •

Censorship focus: Canada (also published in the Index on Censorship magazine)

When Canadian non-binary and queer author Ronnie Riley discovered they’d been “shadow banned” last November they were horrified. But it was a matter of sooner rather than later.

“I felt absolutely horrible, but I knew it was a possibility,” said the Toronto-based writer, who spent several years trying to get their debut novel aimed at middle graders, Jude Saves the World, published. In the book, 12-year-old protagonist Jude Winters is non-binary and has ADHD. “I’ve experienced my share of trans
Devex •

Uganda tweaked its anti-gay law just to get donor cash, activists say

As a court in Uganda refused to strike down one of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws enacted nearly a year ago, activists fear the law there and the “lackluster” response to it from donors will spur on other countries considering similar harsh legislation.

The Constitutional Court of Uganda on Wednesday rejected the nullification of The Anti-Homosexuality Act in its entirety, scrapping just two sections and two subsections and declaring the rest of the law constitutional. The ruling, which had
Al Jazeera •

‘Humour is powerful’: Cartoons take on Uganda’s repressive government

Huge potholes and rundown hospitals are actually getting fixed, thanks to a cartoonist’s online satire aimed at the government.

Ugandan cartoonist Jim Spire Ssentongo didn’t know what he was starting last April when he sent out a tweet encouraging people to post photos of the ubiquitous potholes across the country’s capital.

“A friend of mine is organising a mega KAMPALA POTHOLE PHOTO EXHIBITION” he wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on April 15 last year. “Share here photos o
Crikey •

Calls renew for Australia's corporate religious institutions to pay 'fair share' of tax

There are renewed calls for religious charities to face “a day of financial reckoning” and “pay their fair share of tax”, as the government prepares to table a report in Parliament on Australian philanthropy.

The “once-in-a-generation” review, announced just over a year ago as part of the government’s election vow to double philanthropic giving by 2030, and to boost donations to charities, is being undertaken by the Productivity Commission (PC).

Last month, former Jehovah’s Witness whistleblow
The Saturday Paper •

Julian Assange’s appeal outcome has ramifications for the future of journalism

A loss for Julian Assange in his final appeal against extradition to the United States this week would be the end of the road for him within the British legal system and, his supporters argue, a death sentence.

The WikiLeaks co-founder has been incarcerated in London’s high-security Belmarsh prison since April 11, 2019, when he was dragged out of the Embassy of Ecuador in London, where he’d sought asylum. The man who now faces an 18-count indictment over his alleged role in one of the largest l
Crikey •

Book bannings the canary in the coal mine — and Australia could be next

Vancouver’s Eastside is generally viewed as a liberal place, but today librarians there have a new battle on their hands.

“They are now spending their time looking for hate speech, which in Canada is an illegal thing,” Jen Ferguson, a Michif/Métis author with ancestral ties to the Red River, told a recent Vancouver Writers Fest session.

She recounted a conversation with a librarian in that part of the city: “She told me that her library has to flip through all the pages of young adult books wh
Al Jazeera •

‘They can kill us’: Fear and Sikh resilience in Canada city amid India spat

Six months after Hardeep Singh Nijjar’s assassination, his community members face threats but say they’re not defeated.

Surrey, British Columbia – On a Saturday afternoon in a Sikh temple in Surrey, Canada, boys and men with determined faces wield swords and sticks at each other in an ancient martial art called gatka.

“We are a rebellious community,” Gurkeerat Singh, a farmer, electrician, photographer and spokesperson for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple, tells me. Surrey is about a 45-min
Fodors Travel Guide •

If You Think Traveling to Visit Orphanages Is Helpful, It’s Time to Reconsider

The #endorphanagetourism campaign targeting tourists traveling from the U.K. comes as U.S. organizations also warn them about the dangers that children’s institutions pose to young ones, backed up by decades of research.

For nearly 10 years in the 1980s, from the age of four until she was a teenager, Rukhiya Budden called an orphanage in Nairobi, Kenya, home. Her mother was alive but had mental health issues and was unable to support her, so Budden stayed in the privately funded home. Every wee
Journo Resources •

'I Had To Do It': Unpaid Tests vs. Freelance Journalists

When widely-published freelance journalist Valentina Valentini was sent a job ad from a friend for a Newsweek freelance entertainment role, she “wasn’t shocked” to find out that it later demanded she do an unpaid test.

After applying for the role, she was told over the phone that she’d have to do a free assessment to score the job. “I was disappointed,” the London-based freelancer of 14 years, whose work has appeared in Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, and The LA Times to name a few, told Jour
Devex •

Zambia deletes 'sexual' from SRHR in blow to LGBTQ+ and rights groups

A move by Zambia to take the word “sexual” out of “sexual and reproductive health and rights” as part of an LGBTQ+ crackdown has raised the eyebrows of activists and donors, with some warning that this could lead to an “entrenchment of patriarchal norms” and particularly impact HIV service provision.

The attempt was recently outlined in a letter dated Sept. 21 by professor Christopher Simoonga, permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, and sent to all provincial health directors in the sou
New Humanist UK •

The schools educating the next generation of Uganda's humanists

When Peter Kisirinya laid down the first handmade brick of a high school classroom in 2005, surrounded by his community in Kateera, Uganda, he didn't have any inkling of how ground-breaking it was. "I had no sense that I was starting the first of thing anything in the world," said the founder and managing director or the Isaac Newton Humanist High School, believed to be the first and longest-running institution of its kind in Africa.
Rotary Down Under magazine •

Zone 8 unites to say no to domestic violence

It was at a funeral five years ago that David Harmon began to realise the enormity of domestic and family violence in Australia. Then about to take over the reins of the Ballina-on-Richmond club, he was at a memorial in Kyogle, also on the Northern Rivers, for a friend’s sister tragically murdered in Melbourne in front of her three young children.

“I thought jeez, this is shocking what's going on. What could I do as an incoming president of our club?” says Dave, now Rotary District Governor for Zone 9640 for 2023-24.
“I went back to my wife that night, and our club, and spoke about making domestic and family violence the main focus of my first year as president.”

A few months later, 800 people walked down the main street of Ballina in the start of the club’s campaign to try to raise awareness of this issue. On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner, according to statistics cited by non-profit Our Watch. This year, there are remarkably 20 Districts that make up Zone 8 united for the plight of gender-based violence They encompass 16 countries from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Island Nations, over 25,000 Rotarians and 20 Governors.
“We have clubs across our zone combining for a common cause,” says Dave. “This is a rare opportunity and has not happened in over 30 years. Imagine the community interest, impact and engagement.”

The campaign against domestic and family violence has helped transform the Ballina-on-Richmond club. In just the past few years, membership has grown from 33 to about 80 people, spurred on by those wanting to help tackle what Dave points out is now the biggest issue facing police today.
“Find your club’s relevance and members will come,” he says.

The death of Lindy Lucena in January, just one street back from Ballina’s main street, marked Australia’s first domestic and family violence related death for 2023. Lindy’s partner was charged with her murder and breaching an apprehended violence order. After this local business Cherry Street Sports Club asked Rotary “what can we do?”

“Cherry Street Sports Club have over 100 staff and for six weeks over Christmas and New Year they all wore our ‘Rotary Says NO to Domestic Violence’ shirts to promote awareness of domestic violence,” says Dave. “They also have beer coasters that they put at all their tables that mention domestic violence.”

The community response was so positive that Ballina Rotary thought what next? A $25,000 club grant between it and Cherry Street Sports Club helped launch the “Purple Friday campaign”, which will mean businesses in Ballina all wearing Rotary’s tops every Friday for the remainder of 2023. Within just two weeks, Rotary had 90 businesses order over 1000 free shirts. Those proudly wearing them include local council staff, primary school workers, tradies, hospitality professionals and retail staff.

“Purple Friday” has helped raise awareness of domestic violence and encourage conversations, says Dave. There are many examples of Ballina women having conversations about their lived experience of this that has never happened before. “I encourage clubs to visit our website and order your shirts,” he says. “They are a great shirt to wear at any of your club’s functions and a conversation starter.”

As part of its broad campaign against gender-based violence, Ballina Rotary also supports the program “Love Bites”. The club helps fund the delivery of this program in high schools on the Northern Rivers. “Love Bites” covers topics such as power and respect in relationships, sexual assault and consent, warning signs of a controlling relationship, and much more. “Research will confirm that the best way to bring about long-term positive change in this area is to educate our youth on what a respectful relationship is and what it looks like,” says Dave.

During this year’s International 16 Days of Activism this year, held from November 25 to December 10, Ballina Rotary will also ask clubs to unite with their community and organise activities that will help raise awareness of domestic violence. This may be a walk, vigil or another activity. They encourage clubs to partner with other organisations that may already be doing something for this event. Ballina Rotary are proposing a zone-wide day of action on December 1.

With the NSW Police recently coming onboard, forming a formal partnership with Rotary Districts of NSW, and their Queensland counterparts expected to follow soon, the campaign that Rotary started will only grow.
“NSW Police see this is the game changer,” says Dave.
“As leaders in our community, we need to stand up and say ‘we’ve had enough of this. What’s happening at the moment isn’t working. Things need to change.’”

To order shirts and other support materials see https://rotaryclubofballinaonrichmond.org.au/#sthash.ddtCkGvf.dpbs
Crikey •

'A world of secrecy': new calls for greater transparency for religious charities

The Greens and secular organisations have revived calls to remove the financial reporting exemptions given to thousands of religious charities, suggesting that scrapping them would enhance public trust in light of new research into their activities and wealth.

No arguments put forward by Catholic and Anglican churches five years ago to justify the creation of “basic religious charities” (BRCs) hold water, said Dr Phil Saj, a visiting scholar at the University of Adelaide’s business school.
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