This is part of an interview Series for the National Film and Sound Archive Aural History Programme by John Fife
My name is John Fife (JF) and I have with me Morrie Pilens (MP).
JF: You mentioned an interesting thing earlier – you touched on the word ‘team’. The cameraman and the journalist, they have to be a team.
MP: They have to mentally be a team. Because somehow I feel that most of the journalists have quite an inferiority complex. And they wanted to be better than thou. ‘I am in charge, I am the one who’s writing the story. It’s my name in the story and you don’t matter.’ Knowing very well that without you they wouldn’t have a bloody story.
It was a sort of balance that had to be kept. If you got on with the journalist alright, it was good. If you didn’t get on with the journalist alright you still did your report. But it was better if you had some communication.
JF: Because as a crew you find yourself….
MP: In all kinds of situations, yes.
JF: You’re away overnight – you’re away for days sometimes.
MP: I know I’m jumping bandwagon but – You know why we didn’t go to Timor?
JF: No
MP: Because Morrie wanted $100 000 insurance with a guaranteed piece of paper on the table, and $5000 slush money.
JF: Yeah?
MP: And ‘Oh, come on, you’re only going to be there overnight –whaddya want that for?’
And I said ‘So when I go in with a group, I pay them to get me out of there.’
‘Yeah, but you’ve been in this situation before – you’ve been in war zones.’
I said ‘Yeah, that’s why I want the insurance. I don’t want a promise…’ and this wasn’t a news editor that was talking to me, because the news editor at that stage was Ian Cook. Cookie felt a little bit embarrassed with me, because by that time he knew that he can’t get rid of me and he realised that I was an asset, not a hindrance.
And one of the journalists was negotiating and he was like ‘Hey, Morrie, you’re going to Timor.’
And I said ‘Oh, yeah.’
‘Yeah, you’ve been in war zones before. What do you want $5000 for?’
So I said “So that I can pay somebody to get me out, if I get into trouble.’
‘Oh, come on! You’re only going to be there couple of days.’
Anyway, they went up to Ron Jury and of course Ron Jury says ‘Sorry, we haven’t got any money.’
*I think they offered it to Terry Carlisle – I don’t know if they did or not but I have a suspicion that they did.
JF: Ron Jury was the company secretary.
MP: Yes, he was the money man. He was the one that I go and ask to buy new equipment and he would say ‘Morrie, noooo’ (laughter).
MP: So that’s why we didn’t finish up with the rest of the poor bastards up at Balibo.
JF: Yes. And what was the atmosphere like when the news came through?
MP: Nothing. Nothing even mentioned
JF: But those guys had died.
MP: Yeah. ‘Oh, bad luck…’
We knew why they’d died. We knew it was the stupidity of one man. But, you know.
JF: Tell me that story.
MP: I can’t tell you that bloody story. I’ll get sued.
JF: Okay.
MP: Shackleton (Greg). Glory loving Shackleton. If it wasn’t for bloody Shackleton, they’d have been out. They were going to come out with the Portuguese crew, according to the Portuguese, and Shackleton was putting on a big act and what have you.
It’s only heresay, from what I’ve heard, so. That’s Balibo. The rest of the guys were just regular guys, you know. Cunningham (Gary)was terrific, so were the others. They were just kids. They just do as they’re told. (Brian Peters, Malcolm Rennie, Greg Shackleton, Gary Cunningham, Tony Stewart).
JF: Kids in a war zone.
MP: Yeah. ‘Oh, big deal, we’ll put a flag on the wall and all of a sudden it’s a protected national, you know.’ It doesn’t work that way! A cameraman’s the first one to be aimed for in a war zone. The life span of a cameraman in Germany was about 18 months.
JF: Mm. So back here, when those guys were killed, a bit of a chill went through newsrooms?
*MP: Yeah. Of course John Mullen (?) was upset because he’d already lost a crew in a helicopter crash.