Balibo Five honoured in Canberra

Family and journalists have gathered at a dawn service at the War Correspondents Memorial in Canberra to mark 40 years since the death of the Balibo five.

This photograph of Greg Shackleton - one of the 'Balibo Five' - is posted on a wall outside the New South Wales Coroners Court in Sydney. Source: AAP

A dawn service is underway in Canberra to honour the 40th anniversary of five Australian journalists killed while reporting from Balibo in East Timor.

The Balibo Five - reporter Greg Shackleton, camera operator Gary Cunningham and sound recordist Tony Stewart of the Seven Network, along with reporter Malcolm Rennie and camera operator Brian Peters from the Nine Network - were killed as they witnessed an Indonesian incursion in the town of Balibo on October 16, 1975.

A sixth, Roger East, a reporter working for Australian Associated Press and Reuters, was executed in Dili on December 8, 1975.

Family members of the deceased and journalists gathered at the service at the War Correspondents Memorial at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra on Friday.

Shirley Shackleton, the wife of Greg, told the service there had been 40 years of silence over the deaths from the Australian government.

"(They) have given impunity to the murderers," she said.

John Milkins, son of Garry Cunningham, tearfully read the last letter he received from his father dated October 15, 1975.

"The town of Balibo before the revolution must have been very beautiful, now it is in ruins," the letter said.