thumb|The Australian flag in Balibo

The Balibo Five was a group of journalists working for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor on 7 December 1975. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then Portuguese Timor), where they were killed on 16 October 1975 during Indonesian incursions before the invasion. Journalist Roger East travelled to Balibo soon afterwards to investigate the likely deaths of the Five, and was executed by members of the Indonesian military on the docks of Dili on 8 December 1975. In 2007, following an inquest into the deaths, an Australian coroner ruled that they had been deliberately killed by Indonesian special forces soldiers. The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by cross-fire during the battle for the town. In 2009, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) launched a war crimes investigation, but eventually concluded, in 2014, that there was insufficient evidence to prove an offence. The families of the murdered men continue to advocate for justice. Balibo House Trust was set up in their honour, and continues to do charitable work in East Timor.

The incident

The journalists

The group of journalists subsequently known as "the Balibo Five" comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 29, and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New Zealander, Gary Cunningham, 27, cameraman for HSV-7 (now part of the Seven Network) in Melbourne; and two British citizens, cameraman Brian Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29, both working for TCN-9 (now part of the Nine Network) in Sydney.

The event

While the men were aware that Indonesian troops were to mount an attack on the town of Balibo as part of Operation Flamboyan, before the 1975 invasion of East Timor, they believed that, as journalists, they would not be considered military targets. Greg Shackleton was filmed painting an Australian flag and the word "AUSTRALIA" on the wall of a house in the town square. They were shot and killed on 16 October 1975.

According to historian Clinton Fernandes:

The official Indonesian version is that the men were killed by crossfire during the battle for the town. widow of Greg, led the campaign for an enquiry into the killings. She was also an outspoken supporter of East Timor's fight for independence.

Investigations

2007 inquest into death of Brian Peters

On 5 February 2007, the Coroner's Court of New South Wales began an inquest into Peters' death. Although he was a British citizen, lawyers for the journalists' families successfully argued that, as Peters was a resident of New South Wales at the time of his death, NSW jurisdiction applied. This was the first public inquiry held regarding the fate of the Balibo Five that had powers to call witnesses.

On the first day of the inquest, Yunus Yosfiah, former Minister for Information in the Habibie Government in Indonesia in 1998 and 1999, was accused of having led the 1975 attack in Balibo. Allegations were also raised that the journalists' bodies were dressed post-mortem in military uniforms and posed with weapons to make them appear to have taken an active part in the fighting. The Australian media reported that the Australian Defence Signals Directorate intercepted an Indonesian military radio communication suggesting that the five were killed on the orders of superiors.

After the ruling, newly elected Prime Minister of Australia Kevin Rudd declared "those responsible should be held to account... You can't just sweep this to one side". However, no meaningful action was taken after he was elected.

2009 war crimes investigation

On 9 September 2009, it was announced that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) were launching a war crimes probe into the deaths of the Balibo Five.

In 2009, former Indonesian soldier Gatot Purwanto told the ABC the men were shot deliberately but not executed. He says he was about away when Indonesian soldiers fired on the house in which the men were sheltering. "We knew they were foreigners, but we didn't think about whether they were journalists or not, because in a battle, the instinct is if they're not friends, then they could kill us", he said. He said he was with Special Forces captain Yunus Yosfiah when the Balibo Five were spotted. A coronial inquest into the deaths of the men found Yosfiah, who was later an Indonesian Government minister, ordered the killings. and was therefore guilty of war crimes.

The AFP then concluded, in 2014, that there was insufficient evidence to prove an offence. When the War Correspondents Memorial was opened in September 2015, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said: "Our democracy depends on a free and courageous press. It is the war correspondents that have to tell the truth often in the face of considerable criticism".

According to The Economist, the Australian Government had never challenged the Indonesian Government's official line in order to avoid damaging relations with Indonesia.

50th anniversary

On the 50th anniversary of the killings, commemorations were held in Balibo and across Timor-Leste on the anniversary.

Legacy

The Balibo House Trust was established in 2003 with seed funding from the Victorian Government and television stations 7 and 9. It owns the house in the town square on which the journalists had flown the Australian flag, and preserves it as a community learning centre. The film is based on Cover-Up, by Jill Jolliffe, an Australian journalist who met the men before they were killed. The book has been a source of controversy because of its criticism of some of the people involved in the campaign for justice. The film is largely based on the historical scholarship of Fernandes, who later wrote The Independence of East Timor: Multidimensional Perspectives.

The Balibo killings episode was also fictionalised for the opening sequence of the 1982 film Brothers, written by Roger Ward and directed by Terry Bourke.

Theatre

In 2011, the Melbourne Theatre Company and Western Australia's Black Swan State Theatre Company commissioned Australian playwright Aidan Fennessy to write a new work on the theme of the Balibo Five. Entitled National Interest, the play focuses on the family of slain journalist Tony Stewart, It was performed in Perth and Melbourne during 2012.

Coinciding with the play's premiere season, on 20 May 2012, East Timor's President José Ramos-Horta presented Paul Stewart with a medal of merit awarded posthumously to his brother Tony.

The script of the play won the People's Choice award at the Victorian Premier's Literary Awards in 2012.

Books

  • Balibo by Jill Jolliffe (, Scribe, 2009)
  • Revelation Beach by Susan Francis (, Wild Dingo Press, 2025)
  • Death in Balibo, Lies in Canberra by Desmond Ball and Hamish McDonald (, Allen & Unwin, 2000)

Music

  • On the last track of the Ginger Baker Trio's 1994 Going Back Home entitled "East Timor", Ginger Baker describes "a TV crew of five / trusted a flag to survive / did not get out alive / from East Timor" among other atrocities committed during the war.

References

  • Balibo House Trust
  • BALIBO Official Film Site | a Robert Connolly film | Starring Anthony LaPaglia and Oscar Isaac
  • BALIBO Official Film Trailer
  • New spotlight on Balibo killings, ABC, The 7.30 Report 2 June 2009 transcript
  • Sunday report on Balibo memorial Nine Network Australia
  • BBC Radio 4 Death in East Timor – Interview with Maureen Tolfree
  • 'Lest we forget' cartoon by 'Jeff' from 1976
  • Press group seeks fresh investigation into Balibo five – IFEX
  • DemocracyNow!'s interview with Shackleton's widow, Shirley. "15 Years After East Timor Massacre, Calls for Accountability Continue"
  • New focus helps crack Balibo Five film The Australian
  • ABC Radio National blogging from Balibo Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  • Jill Jolliffe. Balibo (revised and updated). Melbourne, Scribe. 2009. .
  • ContentFilm International : Balibo
  • 'National Interest' – A co-production from Melbourne Theatre Company and Black Swan State Theatre Company