Jill Jolliffe (7 February 1945 – 2 December 2022) was an Australian journalist and author who reported on
East Timor
East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-weste ...
since 1975. She was the author of ''Finding Santana'' and ''Balibo''.
Education and career
Educated at
Geelong High School
Geelong High School is a co-educational, public, secondary school located in East Geelong, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia. The school opened in 1910, making it one of Victoria's oldest state secondary schools, and moved to its curr ...
and
Monash University
Monash University () is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Named for prominent World War I general Sir John Monash, it was founded in 1958 and is the second oldest university in the state. The university has a ...
, she visited East Timor with a student delegation in April 1975 while doing postgraduate work at the
Australian National University
The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies and ...
. She witnessed the
first incursions of
Indonesian regular troops into East Timor in September 1975, and reported on the deaths of the
Balibo Five
The Balibo Five was a group of journalists for Australian commercial television networks who were murdered in the period leading up to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. The Balibo Five were based in the town of Balibo in East Timor (then ...
the following month.
She published her first book with
University of Queensland Press
Established in 1948, University of Queensland Press (UQP) is an Australian publishing house.
Founded as a traditional university press, UQP has since branched into publishing books for general readers in the areas of fiction, non-fiction, poetr ...
in 1978 titled as "''East Timor: Nationalism and Colonialism" which'' was written during her Young Writers Fellowship from the Literature Board of the Australia Council.
Jolliffe lived in
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
from 1978 to 1999, reporting on Portugal,
Angola
, national_anthem = " Angola Avante"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, capital = Luanda
, religion =
, religion_year = 2020
, religion_ref =
, coordina ...
and other ex-Portuguese colonies, as well as East Timor. She later returned to Australia to reside in
Darwin. She was a correspondent for ''
Nation Review
''Nation Review'' was an Australian Sunday newspaper, which ceased publication in 1981. It was launched in 1972 after independent publisher Gordon Barton bought out Tom Fitzgerald's ''Nation'' publication and merged it with his own ''Sunday Revi ...
'',
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
,
UPI
United Press International (UPI) is an American international news agency whose newswires, photo, news film, and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations for most of the 20th c ...
, ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', ''
The Sunday Times
''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', ''
The Age
''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria (Australia), Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Austral ...
'', ''
Sydney Morning Herald
''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...
'', and the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
Jolliffe also directed her first television documentary "''The Pandora Trail"'' in 1992 which exposed European prostitution rackets and Spanish, Portuguese and third world women enslavement..
In 1994, she entered East Timor mountains from Indonesia to meet guerrilla leader Nino Konis Santana. She was captured by Indonesian military but despite that she was able to complete her documentary "Blackade". She covered wars in Angola and
, and was banned from entering Indonesia because of her criticisms of the Indonesian invasion of East Timor and its aftermath. Jolliffe's 2001 book ''Cover-Up: the inside story of the Balibo Five'' tells the story of the capture and killing of the Balibo Five, subsequent evasion of the issue by the governments of Indonesia and Australia, and its connection with Indonesia's decision to invade and occupy East Timor.