The ABC among other outlets runs a piece today on the 40th anniversary of the deaths of the Balibo Five, working journalists (Gary Cunningham, Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton, Tony Stewart) taken out by Indonesian special forces in East Timor in circumstances which are still in some respects mysterious. Not the finest hour in Australian or Indonesian history or in the history of Australian-Indonesian relations. Another Australian journalist, Roger East, was killed in Dili in December 1975.
We noted the opening last month of the Canberra memorial to war correspondents. Our collections of material relevant to the role of war correspondents are here and here.
16 October 2015