Balibo Five - The Group

The Group

The group comprised two Australians, reporter Greg Shackleton, 29, and sound recordist Tony Stewart, 21; a New Zealander, Gary Cunningham, 27, cameraman for HSV-7 (Seven Network) in Melbourne; and two Britons, cameraman Brian Peters, 24, and reporter Malcolm Rennie, 29, both working for TCN-9 (Nine Network) in Sydney.

While the men were aware that Indonesian troops were to mount an attack on the town, 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 known locally as the Chinese house. The Balibo Housing Trust, funded by the Victorian Government, now owns the Chinese house and preserves it as a community learning centre.

Senior diplomats told the 2007 coroner's inquest of their understanding that "the killing was done by the Indonesian military and that it was deliberate". But the journalists were obviously unaware that "it was the policy of the Australian Government privately to support Jakarta in its attempts to occupy East Timor by force" and that the United States had secretly endorsed the intention of Indonesia's President Suharto to invade the Portuguese colony.