Polish Based Encounter - Journalists

[James Langham2]

Originally Posted by Badbru

Ahem, have to take issue with this, ever heard of the Balabo Five? Five Australian journo's, (one might have been a Kiwi) went missing from Balabo in Timor Leste in 1975. The common belief (unproven) is that they were executed by Indonesian troops active in the area.

Also circa 1975 I think, cant recall specifics at the moment, but think the Khmer Rouge executed some journo's.

Nicaraguar, maybe I'm getting a film and reality mixed up but some nuns were executed and I think a journo too.

All of these were long before the former Jugoslavia break up conflicts but I'll admit its probably a more recent trend most likely tied to that other trend of conflicts not being wars between two or more standing armies anymore.

Nice article though. I'll admit to not recognising anyone but they're usefull fleshed out templates.

There have always been incidents as far back as records go, perhaps I should have made it clearer that the policy of targeting journalists specifically instead of just those that had discovered something inconvenient, had outlived their usefulness as hostages, etc.

I actually did a little bit of work a few years ago teaching aid workers and journalists and talking to veterans they felt much more threatened now. Worth noting that in the Second Gulf War, journalists had a higher percentage casualty rate with UK forces than infantry subalterns, traditionally the highest percentage casualty sufferers.

I hadn't heard of that incident, thanks for the heads up.