Balibo is a political thriller that uncovers the true story of five journalists, including New Zealander Gary Cunningham, killed in East Timor in 1975. Maire Leadbeater tells the story behind the story of the film.

Described as a political thriller, the film Balibo tells the story of the five young Australian-based journalists who were killed in 1975, at Balibo near East Timor's border with Indonesia. They were recording the opening shots in Indonesia's takeover of what was then Portuguese East Timor.

The movie is told through the eyes of a sixth journalist, Roger East (Anthony LaPaglia), who set out to investigate the deaths.

The movie has been warmly praised for its accuracy and sensitivity by the journalists' families.

This dramatic story is not as well known this side of the Tasman as it should be, even though one of the five was 27-year-old New Zealander Gary Cunningham. We should honour Gary as one of our heroes.

By 1975, he had already experienced a fair share of danger after filming in Vietnam and narrowly escaping with his life while covering an Australian bushfire.

In the months leading up to October 1975, Indonesia had conducted a strident anti-communist propaganda campaign against East Timor's pro-independence movement. In the meantime, its military forces were covertly engaged in operations with East Timorese volunteers.

The governments of Australia, Britain and New Zealand had already secretly been given advance warning of Indonesia's plans for direct military intervention.

Some have said that the young men should not have gone to the front line when they were warned of the danger, but they were clearly motivated by the desire to let the world know what was happening. Reporter Greg Shackleton recorded a moving piece to camera recounting the questions that the Timorese put to them: "Why," they ask, "are the Indonesians invading us? Why," they ask, "are the Australians not helping us?"

Before dawn on October 16, the Balibo Five began to record the advance of the Indonesian forces.

Had the film taken by Gary and the reports of his colleagues reached the outside world, the documentation would have revealed heavy bombardment of the border area from land and sea taking place under the direction of an Indonesian helicopter.

Witnesses said the men were advised to leave but chose to stay un momento longer to get as much on record as possible. No wonder most East Timorese regard the men as martyrs.

There was a pause in the Indonesian military offensive after the killings while Indonesia waited to see how Western governments would react.

But the Australian Government chose to take its cue from the Indonesian Government, talking about the deaths only after they were detailed in the Indonesian media. The British ambassador in Jakarta, John A. Ford, said the men were in a war zone of their own choice. New Zealand also ducked for cover.

When I probed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents of the time using the provisions of the Official Information Act, I found references to Gary's death – but these were included almost as afterthoughts.

Prime Minister Bill Rowling was counselled at the time to say if a journalist asked him that inquiries had been made of Australia and Indonesia.

Nine months later, a ministry briefing urged that the Government not become involved in the controversy about the deaths because Gary was an Australian resident working for the Australian media at the time of his death.

Since no rebuke was forthcoming, Indonesia concluded that its plans for annexation had the green light. Morally, New Zealand must share the guilt for the terrible tragedy that ensued, including the loss of nearly one third of East Timor's population over the 24 year occupation.

It took until 2007 before a full judicial legal probe into the deaths took place, an achievement which owes much to the determination of the victims' families.

Sydney Coroner Dorelle Pinch conducted an inquest which had the power to compel witnesses, but regrettably the Indonesian actors failed to appear.

Technically the focus was on Brian Peters, because of his Sydney residence qualifications, but effectively the deaths of all five were examined.

Ms Pinch sifted a vast body of historic evidence from earlier inquiries and weighed this against the sworn evidence of Timorese eyewitnesses, including crucial evidence from some who fought on the pro-Indonesian side.

She heard evidence from the top echelons of the foreign affairs and intelligence bureaucracies, and from Australian prime minister of the day Gough Whitlam. She also perused a mountain of confidential government records, including Signals Intelligence.

In 2007, at the time of the inquest, I directed further OIA requests to the Chief of the New Zealand Defence Force, Lieutenant General J. Mateparae, hoping to find out whether New Zealand had received intelligence information from Australia or even collected any independent intelligence. The Minister of Defence, Phil Goff released a summary of further information held about the journalists' deaths.

This confirmed New Zealand's hands-off approach – it is highly unlikely that any New Zealand embassy representative took time out to attend the funeral service held in a Jakarta cemetery on December 5, 1975, when the "remains" of the five journalists were interred, but nobody is absolutely sure.

Coroner Pinch concluded that the men were killed deliberately, despite making it clear that they were non-combatants, "by members of the Indonesian Special Forces, including Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah on the orders of Captain Yosfiah..."

The coroner also said there is strong circumstantial evidence that links the killings to the highest levels of the Indonesian command.

Capt Yosfiah retired in 1999 with the rank of lieutenant-general and has gone on to pursue a high profile political career. He scoffed when Australian journalists asked him about the warrant issued for his arrest during the inquest: "How can they do that? Remember I am an Indonesian citizen."

Coroner Pinch referred the case to the Australian Attorney-general, asking him to consider possible war-crimes prosecutions under the relevant provisions of the Geneva Conventions.

That was more than 20 months ago and there has been no action so far. Consistent with past practice, the New Zealand Government continues to wait and see what happens in Australia.

The Cunningham family believe that the film has taken up the truths that Gary and his colleagues were murdered for trying to report. It may be 34 years on but as Dorelle Pinch expressed it, "The truth is never too young to be told, nor too old."