Balibo, the movie, has two special Amnesty International screenings in Auckland before going on general New Zealand cinema release on Thursday. The film, banned in Indonesia, tells the story of the murder of five members of two Australian-based television news crews in a tiny East Timorese border village in 1975. The narrative exposes the duplicity [...]
Posted in Timor Leste | 2 Comments »>by Amanda Fisher
A “true hero” killed in the line of duty is to be recognised in Wellington as an investigation continues into his 1975 murder.
Cameraman Gary Cunningham was gunned down with four other journalists in East Timor by invading Indonesian forces, while on assignment for Australia’s Channel 7.
Though the Indonesian Army initially said the men [...]
MATTHEW BACKHOUSE
February 12, 2010
NZPA
The New Zealand government has been criticised for its “appalling” failure to hold Indonesia to account over the Balibo Five killings in East Timor.
New Zealander Gary Cunningham and other Australian-based newsmen Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart were shot dead at Balibo, East Timor, in [...]
Click here to hear the interview: Radio NZ: Kim Hill talks to director Robert Connelly on Balibo
Posted in Timor Leste | No Comments »>December 2009
A former Indonesian officer, Gatot Purwanto, has just made a dramatic revelation confirming that Indonesian Special forces killed the Balibo Five journalists in cold blood. Mr Purwanto, a retired colonel, is the first senior Indonesian military figure to give a public eye witness account of the events. He [...]
Packed screenings of the controversial film about the deaths of five Australian journalists in East Timor continue, despite an official ban
Quinton Temby
Is it more exciting to watch Robert Connolly’s feature film on the Balibo Five at a clandestine screening in Jakarta, at which people joke that the military is coming and commentators give defiant statements [...]
The local premiere of the acclaimed Australian film, “Balibo,” which recounts the murder of five journalists allegedly at the hands of Indonesian soldiers during the 1975 invasion of East Timor, was stopped on Tuesday after the censorship board banned the movie.
The Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club had planned to show the film for the first time [...]
BALIBO
Director: Robert Connelly
Australia 2009
Review by Maire Leadbeater
When the movie ‘Balibo’ was shown in East Timor audiences were in tears to see a hidden part of their history on the big screen. Despite knowing the story of the 1975 deaths of the ‘Balibo Five’ inside out, [...]
Posted in News, Timor Leste | No Comments »>20 August 2009
In his latest column for the New Statesman, John Pilger recalls his undercover reporting for East Timor and reveals that a major new movie, Balibo, perpetuates the cover-up of the role played by western governments in the genocidal invasion of East Timor by Indonesia and the Australian government’s part in the murder of [...]