Julia Macfarlane
Julia Macfarlane
Early Life and Education
Macfarlane was born in Bandung, Indonesia to a Scottish father and Indonesian mother and attended the British International School, Jakarta and Ampleforth College. Macfarlane went on to earn a MA in English Literature from the University of St. Andrews in 2011. [1]
Career
Macfarlane began her journalism career as a freelance photojournalist in Indonesia. In 2012 Macfarlane relocated to Beirut, Lebanon to cover the plight of Syrian and Palestinian refugees, where she was hired by BBC News. Macfarlane then moved to London in early 2013 to work as a broadcast journalist and radio reporter for the BBC World Service. Macfarlane transitioned to television journalism in 2015 when she joined the staff of BBC News at Six and BBC News at Ten on BBC One. In 2016 Macfarlane covered the Brexit campaign for BBC Westminster, and thereafter worked as a reporter and producer for BBC World News. [1]
Macfarlane was hired by ABC News at the end of 2017.
Social Media
As of January 2020, Macfarlane has over 100,000 followers on her juliamacfarlane Twitter account. She often shares her articles on Twitter and comments on current political events. She also has over 5,000 followers on her juliamacfarlaneabc Instagram account. She usually posts her work and travel photos as well as photos with friends and family.[4][6]
Controversy
In 2018, Macfarlane was kicked and punched on a train by a man who was simply annoyed by her.
The incident happened as she was getting off at East Croydon station in South London. When the train pulled into station, a man started pushing Julia as if she was in the way as he was trying to exit. "I turned around and said, ‘mate, I’m getting off at the next stop too,'" Julia told MailOnline. The man responded with, "how the f*** was I supposed to know that?"[16]
Julia tried to ignore the man by turning her back to him and putting her headphones in, but he kicked her in the back.
"He kicked me hard – like a football," she said.
"He repeatedly tried to punch me because I didn’t get off the train fast enough.
The whole time I was trying to take photos of him he was grabbing me and trying to take my phone and swinging his fists," Julia said in her interview.
Julia and a bystander chased the man to see if they could get his hat off to take a picture of his face for police, but the man got away.
British Transport Police were called and investigated, but no arrests were made.[16][16]