UK, Australia colluded on Timor says report

The Australian and British Governments colluded to cover up the killing of five journalists in East Timor in 1975, documents reveal.

Five TV journalists - former Wellington man Gary Cunningham, Greg Shackleton, and Tony Stewart of Australia's Seven Network, and Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters of 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, but an inquest in Australia next year will examine the long-held theory that they were murdered by Indonesian forces.

British Foreign Office documents, including communiques from Jakarta to Downing St, have been obtained by relatives of those killed and have been published in the Times in London.

They openly discuss collusion with the Australian Government to cover up the true story behind their deaths.

Then British ambassador Sir John Ford said: "They were in the war zone of their own choice."