The Circle of Silence: A Personal Testimony Before, During and After Balibo

Front Cover
Winner of the 2010 Walkley Award Australian Shirley Shackleton was launched into an unexpected life as a human rights activist when her journalist husband Greg Shackleton was killed in East Timor in 1975. Her story is filled with a profound sense of purpose, enduring love for her late husband, and a fierce determination to seek truth and justice not only regarding the events leading up to the murders of the journalists who came to be known as Balibo Five, but for the cause of democracy and freedom in East Timor.

About the author (2010)

Shirley Shackleton grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and has worked variously as a dressmaker, nurse, and publicity director. She married journalist Greg Shackleton in 1966, and together they had a son, Evan. When Greg was murdered in 1975, Shirley was suddenly thrust into the role of an activist, to uncover the truth of behind the death of the Balibo Five and to fight for the independence of East Timor. Today she lives in Melbourne and continues to advocate for the East Timorese and for the repatriation of Greg’s remains.

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