Sydney – The widow of one of five Australia-based journalists shot dead in East Timor in 1975 says she is not surprised by new documents revealing the Australian and British governments colluded to cover up the killings.

Five television journalists – Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham and Tony Stewart of the Seven Network, and Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters of the Nine Network – were killed while covering Indonesia's invasion of East Timor.

Official reports say the men, known as the Balibo Five, were killed in crossfire. However, an inquest in Australia to begin next year will examine the long-held theory they were deliberately gunned down by Indonesian forces.

The deaths also sparked controversy about how much the Australian government knew about the incident and when.

British Foreign Office documents were this week obtained by relatives of the newsmen, two of whom were British, and published in The Times in London. The diplomatic cables show the British and Australian governments knew what happened to the men and moved to cover up the killings.

Greg Shackleton's widow Shirley today said she was not at all surprised by the contents of the cables. "No, I'm not surprised, because I'm just a normal intelligent human being, and putting two and two together was not that hard," Mrs Shackleton said.

She said it had always been obvious the two governments had refused to reveal the truth about what happened to the men. Ms Shackleton said the cables strengthened calls for a full judicial inquiry into the deaths.

"The pain of the loss for all the families has been trebled because of the actions of the Australian and British governments," she said. "Now, with the accumulated evidence, it's about time for (Prime Minister John) Howard to bite the bullet and hold a full judicial inquiry."

The families of the Balibo Five are pushing to have more Foreign Office documents released for the Australian inquiry, which is due to begin early next year.