Balibo Five

The Balibo Five was a group of Commonwealth journalists - two Australian, two British, and one New Zealander - working for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered by the Indonesian military 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.