The Australian for Friday May 11, 2007 featured the following letter in its First Byte letters column:
Journalists and many others around the world are pleading for the safe release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was abducted in Gaza City two months ago (“We have BBC reporter, 10/5). Perhaps Gough Whitlam could explain that it was his own fault for being there.” – Scott Poynting, Newtown, NSW.
This struck me as an amusing comment in relation to the Balibo Five case as well the case of Alan Johnston. Whether or not Gough Whitlam, in his testimony to the investigation of the Balibo Five case, claimed that it was the journalists’ own fault for being there (which I don’t believe he did), this letter reflects a certain amount of public sentiment that Gough Whitlam and his government of the day were at least partly responsible for a lack of effective response to the plight of the Balibo Five journalists who were killed.
