The New South Wales state coroner's verdict over the deaths of the Balibo Five journalists is that Brian Peters was deliberately killed to prevent him from revealing Indonesian Special Forces had taken part in the attack on Balibo at the start of the invasion of East Timor in 1975. Deputy State Coroner Dorelle Pinch ruled:Brian Raymond Peters, in the company of fellow journalists Gary James Cunningham, Malcolm Harvie Rennie, Gregory John Shackleton and Anthony John Stewart, collectively known as "the Balibo Five", died at Balibo in Timor-Leste on 16 October 1975 from wounds sustained when he was shot and/or stabbed deliberately, and not in the heat of battle, by members of the Indonesian Special Forces, including Christoforus da Silva and Captain Yunus Yosfiah on the orders of Captain Yosfiah, to prevent him for revelaing that Indonesian Special Forces had participated in the attack on Balibo. There is strong circumstantial evidence that those orders emanated from the Head of the Indonesian Special Forces, Major-General Benny Murdani to Colonel Kalbuadi, Special Forces Group Commander in Timor, and then to Captian Yosfiah.
Coroner Pinch also recommended that a 'national industry-wide Safety Code of Practice for journalists' should be developed in partnership with Australia's media organisations.
Pictured: The five who were murdered - Greg Shackleton (clockwise from top left), Tony Stewart, Greg Cunningham, Malcolm Rennie and Brian Peters.
