Balibo, still banned
Robert Connolly’s 2009 film Balibo has “potential to increase political tensions” and therefore, an Indonesian court decided to maintain its ban in that country.
“The film Balibo could incite political sensitivities in relations between nations,” said Judge Andri Mosepa.
The film was banned by the film Censorship Agency last year, and the Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI) challenged the ban in court. The AJI advised it would appeal the decision to a higher court.
The Australian Associated Press reported AJI lawyer Hendrayana as saying: “It’s excessive paranoia to ban this film completely”.
Banning films based purely on Political grounds is “1984 – Big Brother” gone mad. You’d think in this day and age that as a society we would learn that telling stories on film is the right of all filmmakers and unless there is certain elements of the film like sex scenes, blood and gore which deserve at least an R rating, this shouldn’t stop films of political nature from being screened.
The main reason why this film is banned isn’t because of tensions between Australia and Indonesia it’s because the Indonesian Government have hidden the murder of these Australian journalists for so long that they don’t want to finally have their own people see the atrocity for what it is. MURDER!
Robert Connolly’s film “BALIBO” was not only very well researched through Jill Jollief (who wrote the book) but also I know for a fact that David Williamson (writer) and Robert Connolly both exhausted every inch of research into the story from the right people.
My own cousin John who’s father was one of the Balibo 5 has always been dedicated to getting this story told and still remains part of the building process in Balibo. The tension between countries should be based on actually having the Indonesian Government be honest about what happened so that the family’s of those murdered can put to rest this ongoing fight to have this story told. These 5 journalists are part of the Australian industry, they are proud Aussies that went to get a story. Would we do anything if Ray Martin or George Negus were brutally killed or would we sit on our hands?
At the end of the day we ARE talking about a country that executes people!! Doesn’t seem to be any censorship on that though!
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Banning this film for “political reasons” is just an excuse to cover up the real truth and I believe the judge was acting under pressure from the Indonesian government to keep protecting their ex military mates who carried out these murders and many others.
If the real truth came out then the Australian government would also be exposed for the part they played in this bloody affair. It may have happened 35 years ago but it still happened, ex nazis have been hunted and brough to justice since WWII, why not also in this case?
East Timor was a proving ground for much of the Indonesian military at the time. Many have moved up thru the ranks of the military and government. All good mates who protect each other up to now.
“Reformasi” has changed for the worst.
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