Roger East (journalist)

Roger East (7 February 1922 – 8 December 1975) was an Australian journalist who was murdered by the Indonesian military during its invasion of East Timor in 1975.

East was a freelance journalist who was working for the Australian Associated Press (AAP). He travelled to Portuguese Timor (now known as East Timor) in October 1975, following the story of the Balibo Five, who had been killed by Indonesian soldiers just weeks before.

Previously, he had worked as a publicity officer for the National Party of Australia in Queensland and had been working in Darwin as a press officer for the Darwin Reconstruction Commission (which was created after the devastation of Darwin by Cyclone Tracy in December 1974).

At that time, East Timor was under the de facto government of Fretilin, a left-wing political party. The Portuguese governor had fled to the island of Atauro and was refusing to return to Dili, the capital city. Fretilin issued what it called a "Unilateral Declaration of Independence" (i.e., independence from Portugal) on 28 November 1975.

East was one of only three journalists in Timor— the other two were Michael Richardson of The Age and Jill Jolliffe, a freelancer who was then working for Reuters.

When it became obvious that a full-scale invasion by Indonesia was imminent, Richardson and Jolliffe left with the Red Cross and went to Darwin. East, however, decided to remain in East Timor. He planned to retreat with the Fretilin forces to the mountains in the interior and report from there to the outside world. He was captured by the Indonesians before he could get away.

Eyewitnesses later reported that East was brought, along with many other prisoners, to the Dili waterfront. He and scores of others were then executed by firing squad.

Following an inquest into the murder of the Balibo Five, there were calls for a similar inquest into the murder of East.

Media

In Timothy Mo's novel The Redundancy of Courage, the character Bill Mabbely is based upon Roger East.

Anthony LaPaglia starred as Roger East in the 2009 Australian film Balibo. It tells the story of the Balibo Five. The film was co-written by David Williamson and Robert Connolly and was based upon Cover-Up, a book by Jill Jolliffe.

See also

• Australia – East Timor relations
• Balibo Five

Bibliography

• Timor: A People Betrayed, by James Dunn, ABC Books, 1996, p. 254

External links

• Roger East memorial page on the official Australian Broadcasting Corporation site
• Justice demanded for 'sixth Balibo journalist', ABC Tuesday, 5 June 2007
• Forgotten Aussie of Dili article in The Sunday Times, 4 December 1995
• LaPaglia leads Balibo five thriller cast', ABC Friday, 28 September 2007
• Roger East – Australia's Forgotten Journalist, Hindsight ABC – 14 December 2008