Under Investigation: Oct 17

Under Investigation is back on Nine next week with Liz Hayes revisiting “Secrets of Balibo.”

In 1975 Australians Greg Shackleton and Tony Stewart, Britons Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters, and New Zealander Gary Cunningham decided to stay in the town of Balibo, East Timor, even though the East Timorese had fled, believing that as journalists they would not be military targets.

In 2007, 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 1975 Roger East also travelled to Balibo soon after to investigate the likely deaths of the Five and was later executed by members of the Indonesian military on the docks of Dili. Calls for an inquest into East’s death have been rejected.

Under Investigation with Liz Hayes will reveal the shocking true story of the Balibo Five and the dreadful cover-up, much of which has remained untold for nearly 50 years, tomorrow night at 8.40pm on Channel 9 and 9Now.

In October 1975, five Australian newsmen from Channel 7 and Channel 9 were sent to East Timor, to report on the conflict there and investigate evidence that Indonesia had plans to invade the tiny nation. But the journalists did not live to tell their story and the circumstances of their deaths have been mired in secrecy, denial and cover-up, until now.

“Even now,” says host Liz Hayes, “there are still secrets about what happened to the Balibo Five being kept from the Australian people.

“I was left at times in disbelief by what I heard,” says Hayes. “I can only imagine how devastated the families of the Balibo Five must have been, particularly when it became clear the newsmen could have been saved.”

“The Secrets of Balibo” features footage of the journalists’ final reports, including from Channel 7 reporter Greg Shackleton who was moved to tears by the plight of the East Timorese, just days before they were executed.

Joining Hayes at the War Table are Professor Clinton Fernandes, a former Army intelligence analyst and historian; Amanda Vanstone AO, a former Ambassador and Federal Minister with special insight into how governments operate behind closed doors; Lurdes Pires, a fierce activist for East Timor who met the journalists before she fled the violence, escaping to Australia; and John Milkins, the son of Gary Cunningham, one of the Balibo Five, and Chair of the memorial Balibo House Trust.

8:40pm Tuesday on Nine.