The Wire

Balibo the movie opens across the country today – almost 34 years after the deaths of five Australian journalists at the hands of Indonesian troops. The story shows that the men were actually deliberately murdered- after so many years of official denial by both Australian and Indonesian governments . The sixth journalist in the saga, also murdered by Indonesian troops – was Roger East and its his forgotten story that is the film’s main plot. Jill Joliffe is a journalist who was in Timor at the time. She’s tried ever since to dig out the real story and get it publicly recognised. Her 2001 book CoverUp and her current book Balibo are the basis for the movie.