Roger East

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Roger East (1924 - December 8, 1975) was an Australian journalist who was murdered by Indonesian soldiers during the invasion of East Timor in 1975.

A freelance journalist then working for the Australian Associated Press (AAP), East came to Portuguese Timor in October 1975 following up the story of the Balibo Five who had been killed by the Indonesians in an incursion just weeks before. Previously, he had worked as a publicity officer for the Country Party in Queensland, and had been working in Darwin as a press officer for the Darwin Reconstruction Board, set up following the devastation of the city by Cyclone Tracy.

At this time, East Timor was being de facto ruled by a Fretilin administration as the legal Portuguese governor had retreated to the island of Atauro and was refusing to return to the capital Dili. Fretilin would declare UDI on November 28.

East was one of only three journalists in Timor - the others being Michael Richardson of The Age and Jill Jolliffe, a freelancer then working for Reuters. When it became obvious that Indonesia's full-scale invasion was imminent, Richardson and Jolliffe decided to evacuate with the Red Cross to Darwin but East decided to remain with the Timorese. East planned to retreat with Fretilin forces to the mountains in the interior and report from there to the outside world but he was captured by the Indonesians before this could happen. Eyewitnesses later reported that he was brought with many other prisoners to the Dili waterfront and executed by firing squad.

Following the inquest into the death of the Balibo Five, there have been calls for a similar inquest into the death of East in the Northern Territory.[1]

In Timothy Mo's novel The Redundancy of Courage, the character Bill Mabbely is based on Roger East.

Anthony LaPaglia will star as Roger East in Balibo a 2008 Australian movie telling the story of the Balibo Five. The movie is co-written by David Williamson and Robert Connolly and is based upon Cover-Up, by Jill Jolliffe.