Clancy Balen
Clancy Balen reports for the ABC on the intersections of health, environment and public policy, focusing on how government and industry decisions affect people, animals and ecosystems. He works as a multi-platform reporter and digital producer, telling stories across digital text, imagery and social platforms. His coverage stands out for the way it uses expert research, official data and lived experience to explain complex issues such as vaccination programs, antibiotic use in aquaculture and emerging fisheries.
Health policy, vaccines and clinical oversight
Balen’s health reporting centres on decisions that shape access to care and protection from disease, especially for vulnerable groups. In his coverage of the state-funded meningococcal B vaccination program, he explains that all infants in Tasmania aged between six weeks and two years are now eligible for free immunisation against a rare but potentially deadly disease. He sets out the scale of the initiative, noting a multi-million-dollar investment, the use of general practices and council clinics, and how it sits alongside existing national programs for other meningococcal strains and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. The story balances policy detail with clear explanations of risk, making the case for early childhood vaccination without losing sight of system-level design.
His health coverage also extends to clinical oversight and prescribing standards. In reporting on a coroner’s finding that a former medical practitioner’s “grossly irresponsible” prescribing contributed directly to the deaths of two drug-dependent people, he follows how individual decisions intersect with regulatory frameworks and patient safety. Across these pieces, Balen consistently frames health stories as questions of accountability and system performance, rather than isolated clinical events.
Environmental health, salmon aquaculture and regulation
A major thread in Balen’s work is the health of aquatic environments and the industries that depend on them, with a particular focus on salmon farming. In his coverage of the Tasmanian salmon sector’s use of more than five tonnes of the antibiotic florfenicol to treat disease, he details how the drug was deployed during an outbreak that cost the industry thousands of tonnes of farmed fish. He traces the regulatory arc of florfenicol, explaining that its licence for use on Atlantic salmon was revoked after traces were detected in marine species and a federal ban followed. The piece shows how animal health interventions can create downstream risks for ecosystems and food chains, putting environmental health at the centre of a business story.
In a separate report on the prime minister’s written assurance to salmon companies that laws governing Macquarie Harbour would be changed to better protect their farms, Balen follows the politics of aquaculture regulation. He documents the government’s communication with industry, the promise of legislative change and the tension between commercial certainty and environmental safeguards. Taken together, his aquaculture coverage highlights how antibiotics, stocking decisions and legal frameworks combine to shape both industry resilience and ecological outcomes.
Marine science, fisheries and climate research
Balen frequently turns to marine science to explain opportunities and risks in the oceans. In his reporting on an “enormous” Australian sardine resource identified in Bass Strait, he draws on biomass estimates from researchers to show that a sardine population stretching from the south coast of New South Wales to Tasmania could rival the country’s largest fishery. He lays out figures just under 350,000 tonnes of biomass and explores whether such a resource could sustain annual catches in the tens of thousands of tonnes, while stressing the need for conservative catch limits and more comprehensive surveys before a new fishery is developed. The story is framed as a science-led briefing on potential industry growth, tempered by ecological caution and government scrutiny.
His climate reporting similarly grounds big environmental shifts in research and expert testimony. In a piece on Antarctic sea ice entering a “new low state”, he speaks with scientists about large anomalies in sea ice coverage and the role of greenhouse gas emissions in warming the Southern Ocean. He reports estimates of millions of square kilometres of missing sea ice compared with typical maxima, and relays warnings that repeated record lows point to a persistent new state rather than short-term variability. These stories show a consistent approach: he uses data and specialist voices to make marine and climate science legible to general audiences, while tying findings back to policy and emission decisions.
Waste, protest history and community-focused stories
Balen also reports on how institutions and communities respond to environmental and social pressures on the ground. In his coverage of the GreenMed trial targeting “shocking” volumes of single-use plastics in hospitals, he uses images from the trial and hospital sites to show how medical teams are rethinking the disposal of plastic wraps and other materials. He follows the expansion of the program to more hospitals, highlighting both the logistical challenges and the environmental benefits of reducing medical waste. Here again, health care is treated as an environmental actor, not just a clinical setting.
His interest in protest history and its long shadow emerges in a story about a Tasmania Police officer and a Franklin River blockade photographer who reunite four decades after confronting each other at an environmental protest. The piece revisits a formative conservation battle and shows how individuals on opposing sides now reflect on that moment, linking personal memories to enduring debates over wilderness protection. In coverage of an Aboriginal activist confronting logging company staff during a trespass court case, he tracks how land rights, forestry and legal processes collide in contemporary disputes. Alongside these heavier themes, he occasionally writes lighter human-interest pieces, such as the story of Oli the cat and his crew in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race, which taps into tradition and public affection for the event.
Balen’s work extends beyond traditional articles into broadcast and social formats. He appears in ABC News Tasmania discussions about crime and community disquiet, including the role of social media in amplifying concerns, reflecting his comfort with live and conversational reporting. Across beats, he uses a mix of narrative detail, visual elements and expert input to connect individual experiences with broader structural changes in health systems, environmental management and public life.
4 more health journalists.
Abida Tasnim
Abida Tasnim is a health writer for The Daily Star who focuses on clear, practical guidance that helps readers recognise risks early and act before everyday illnesses turn into wider public health problems. She reports on infectious disease prevention, using measles coverage to show how outbreaks start with individual decisions and behaviours, not just hospital statistics. Her work explains what happens during an outbreak and then anchors the story in simple steps people can take, such as avoiding crowded places when symptoms appear, practising good hygiene, and seeking medical advice early. She writes direct, action‑oriented health explainers that turn clinical questions about contagion and disease burden into everyday choices. Across her beat, she stresses early recognition, timely care, and prevention as the foundations of healthier communities.
Adrián Carballo Casla
Adrián Carballo Casla stands out for turning complex cohort data on ageing into clear, food‑level advice on what older adults should eat to protect brain health and slow chronic disease. He is a researcher in nutritional epidemiology focused on ageing and chronic disease prevention and a postdoctoral researcher in geriatric epidemiology at Karolinska Institutet, writing health explainers for The Conversation. He reports on how diet quality, especially Mediterranean and Mind‑style patterns, shapes dementia risk, grey matter loss and neurocognitive ageing, and how healthy versus pro‑inflammatory diets alter multimorbidity trajectories. His articles translate findings on flavonoids, polyphenols, folate, omega‑3 fats and dietary nitrates into specific food choices and small, practical changes. Much of his coverage is anchored in his own studies on multimorbidity, high‑risk older adults and tailored dietary recommendations, often syndicated to other outlets.
Ahmed Elbediwy
Ahmed Elbediwy brings a lab-based understanding of cancer biology and clinical biochemistry to public-facing health reporting, linking drug mechanisms and molecular pathways to everyday choices about medicines and products. He writes for The Conversation on weight-loss injections, cancer overdiagnosis and anti-ageing supplements, focusing on obesity medicine, cancer signalling, screening trade-offs, skincare and supplement science. His pieces on GLP-1 drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro explain why some people do not respond, how gut hormones and appetite signals work, and where psychological support and nutrition fit alongside prescriptions. He co-authors explainers on cancer risk and overdiagnosis and on whether supplements can reverse ageing, separating established knowledge from emerging research. An award-winning senior lecturer at Kingston University, he favours clear, structured explainers, careful definition of key terms and evidence-based appraisal over hype.
Amanda Sheppeard
Amanda Sheppeard is a managing editor and health journalist known for long, detailed explainers that connect complex clinical research, disability policy and political narratives with the daily realities of doctors and patients. She works at The Medical Republic across editorial leadership and commercial content while reporting widely on medicine for its specialist titles. Her real beat spans autism, disability policy, autoimmune disease, infectious threats and system pressures in primary care and hospitals. She covers subjects such as autism diagnosis and the NDIS, rheumatology’s clinical shifts, weight-loss agents in rheumatoid arthritis, infection control, antimicrobial resistance and new modalities like CAR T-cell therapy and microneedles. She reports by doing the synthesis inside the story, linking trial design, molecular targets, funding rules and policy changes to concrete decisions and workflows in clinics and hospitals.