The University became involved after a training workshop in Brisbane 12 East Timorese journalists attended and it became apparent that they had no equipment or paper. They destroyed the premises as retaliation against what they saw as 'antagonistic' reporting. Suara Timor Timur was a private newspaper owned by pro-Indonesia businessman Salvador Soares and was the main source of local print news under Indonesian rule. When the Indonesian military withdrew from East Timor after the August 30 referendum the pro-integration militia torched what was left of the offices of Suara Timor Timur . All production equipment was completely destroyed, but not the aspirations of East Timorese editors and journalists to produce uncensored news about the newly independent nation.
Archive material covers the period before and immediately after independence.
Then the police Brimob attacked the Salesian place and started to loot and burn. The police did not realise that he was their man. After the looting policemen had gone, the village chief brought back the goods which he had stored outside, and returned them to the priests. Nairn, a freelance journalist, was arrested and deported in 1999 by the Indonesian military, nearly a decade after covering the Santa Cruz massacre and appearing on army blacklists. Look at today and look at election day when everything was brought under control with the snap of a finger.