T

he Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club (JFCC) decided to "err on the side of caution" in canceling a private screening Tuesday of Balibo, a movie about the death of five Australian journalists in the then East Timor in 1975, said JFCC president Jason Tedjasukman.

With the movie scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., Tedjasukmana told about 150 people assembled at the Blitz Megaplex at the Grand Indonesia shopping mall, Central Jakarta, that the club was informed late in the afternoon by Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFest) organizers that the movie was banned.

"I haven't received anything official but after consulting with our legal advisers, we decided it would be too risky because, while this is a private screening, it would be in a public place thus violating the law," he said.

Tedjasukmana said producers John Maynard and Rebecca Williamson and director Robert Conolly decided they would not travel to Indonesia for the screenings.

The JFCC refunded the Rp 150,000 (US$15) ticket price, Rp 100,000 of which was earmarked for the Sander Thoenes Fund in memory of the Dutch journalist slain in East Timor in 1999.

The JIFFest organizers still have Balibo listed on their website, scheduled to be screened on Dec. 6 at 6.30 p.m. and on Dec. 10 at 3.30 p.m. at Grand Indonesia's Blitz Megaplex.

Indonesian Military (TNI) spokesman Rear Marshal Sagom Tamboen recommended Balibo not be screened in Indonesia.

"It will only hurt many Indonesians. The movie will only do irreparable damage to the *diplomatic* ties between Indonesia, Timor Leste *formerly East Timor* and Australia.

"The Australian Coroner Courts had declared members of the Indonesian Military innocent in the court hearings in 2007," he said.

"The five journalists were killed in the battlefield, not because the military physical attacked them," he added.

The Indonesian government had earlier said it might prohibit the screening of the movie here, claiming it may be deemed "offensive".

Balibo was released on Aug. 13, 2009, two months before the Australian Federal Police (AFP) announced it had reopened the investigation into the deaths of the five journalists - British reporters Malcolm Rennie and Greg Shackleton, Australian cameramen Brian Peters and Tony Stewart and New Zealand cameraman Gary Cunningham.

Balibo is based on a book written by Jill Jolliffe, who witnessed the first incursions of the TNI into the Balibo territory and reported the death of her five colleagues. She moved to Portugal in 1978, but continued to follow the story of the Balibo Five for more than 30 years.