Timor-Leste

Timor-Leste, also known as East Timor, became the first new nation-state of the 21st century when it gained independence from Indonesia in 2002. International support for Timorese independence grew after foreign correspondents smuggled footage of what became known as the Santa Cruz massacre out of Timor-Leste in 1991. Foreign media interest in Timor-Leste spiked in 1999 as Indonesian troops violently withdrew from the east of the Timor island. Indonesia had previously curbed foreign media coverage of its invasion of Timor-Leste in 1975 by capturing and executing the journalists who remained to document the invasion, including five Australian television correspondents who later became known as the Balibo Five. Although Timor-Leste enjoyed a brief period of independence from Portugal in 1975, the nation did not have the ...