Bruce Loudon – At the time, the authorities dismissed it as a straightforward case of journalists tragically caught in the crossfire.

Just before dawn, 29 years ago today, five television journalists reporting on Indonesia's incipient invasion of the Portuguese colony of East Timor were killed at the hamlet of Balibo. Since then, the deaths of Australians Tony Stewart, 21, and Greg Shackleton, 27; New Zealander Gary Cunningham, 27; and Britons Malcolm Rennie, 28, and Brian Peters, 29, have been mired in political controversy.

For it has taken all this time – and the liberation of East Timor from Indonesian subjugation – to penetrate the curtain of bureaucracy thrown up around events on that fateful day. Tony Stewart's brother Paul, a Melbourne journalist/ musician who was working for Channel Seven at the time, explains: "Successive governments will forever be damned for their cover-ups and inaction. It should be remembered that it was not only five journalists who died during the Indonesian invasion and subsequent occupation, but many Timorese as well."

What, then, are the facts as they have emerged? On the day, the five at Balibo were in direct line of Indonesian forces advancing into East Timor.

The Portuguese colony was in ferment following the April 25, 1974, "Carnation Revolution" in Lisbon led by young officers of the Movimento das Forcas Armadas, who were determined to end Portugal's colonial commitments. Indonesia wanted to exploit the unrest and grab control of East Timor rather than see it handed over to what it regarded as leftist guerilla insurgents.

The impending Indonesian invasion was hardly a secret. Whitlam's government was aware of it. There was a nod and a wink. Canberra made it plain to Jakarta that while it voted for a UN resolution condemning Indonesian action, it did not want to get involved in East Timor.

The attack on Balibo was launched before first light on October 16 – and one of the more startling revelations to emerge over the years has been that Australia's embassy in Jakarta was made aware of the impending attack three days before it was launched. Yet no warning was passed on to the "Balibo Five", who had been deployed to report the invasion.

It seems they, too, were acutely aware of the impending danger. They had scrawled the word "Australia" on the house they were occupying, and drawn an Australian flag on the wall, clearly in the hope that this would reinforce their claims to neutrality and their role as independent reporters.

Four inquiries into their killing have been held since 1975. The UN, too, during the time of its rule over East Timor following Indonesia's expulsion, held an investigation. Three Indonesians, one a senior general who went on to become a government minister, were recommended for indictment over the killings, but that, too, got nowhere.

However, what seems clear now is that, far from being "caught in the crossfire", the five were deliberately killed by Indonesian special forces not in the house where they were staying, but at another nearby. And that afterwards there was a cover-up not just in Jakarta but in Canberra, too.

Today, the renovated "Balibo Flag House" stands as a memorial to an inglorious episode in relations between the two countries – and a constant reminder of the sort of risks reporters run as they seek to cover the world's trouble spots.