Adam Gartrell, Jakarta – The Indonesian government has defended its censors' decision to ban Balibo, labelling the Australian film "negative propaganda".

Indonesia's censorship board, the LSF, announced the ban on Tuesday, just hours before Robert Connolly's acclaimed film was due to premiere in Jakarta.

The LSF is yet to explain its reasons for the ban but it's believed the Indonesian military was influential in the decision.

Balibo depicts Indonesian soldiers brutally murdering the five Australia-based newsmen in the East Timorese border town in 1975, contradicting the official explanation that they were killed in crossfire.

Indonesian defence ministry spokesman Slamet Hariyanto on Wednesday welcomed the ban, saying the film would give Indonesia a bad name and defame its defence force.

"People would ask, what kind of leadership is that, if we ordered journalists to be treated like that? This is negative propaganda against Indonesia."

Foreign Ministry spokesman Teuku Faizasyah also welcomed the decision. "We asked them not to screen the movie because we were worried about opening up a new conflict between Indonesia and Australia," he said.

But Ezki Suyanto, from Indonesia's Independent Journalist Alliance, said Indonesia was too paranoid.

"Banning it is actually even counter-productive. It just makes more people want to watch it," he said. Connolly said he was disappointed by the LSF's decision.

"I had high hopes for the film and the impact it may have had if it had screened in Indonesia," he told the ABC. "I always think it's a pity when even in these democratic times in Indonesia that the people of Indonesia can't see a film that deals with their history."

The film's release in Australia earlier this year came just weeks before federal police announced they would conduct a formal war crimes investigation into the killings.

The probe follows a 2007 coronial inquest that concluded Indonesia deliberately killed the journalists to cover up their invasion of East Timor.