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José Ramos-Horta paid tribute to journalists from Lusa, SIC, RTP and Radio Renascença, who, the Timorese leader said, make the voice of the people heard in Portugal and around the world.
The president of East Timor yesterday honoured eight Portuguese journalists as part of celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the independence referendum, highlighting their contribution to making the voice of the Timorese people heard in the world.
In his presidential citation, José Ramos-Horta said the journalists “were able to tell the world about the resistance and suffering of the East Timorese people and their desire for self-determination.”
“Portuguese journalists have contributed to making the voice of the East Timorese people heard in Portugal and around the world” and have “captured the story of a people who want freedom and who, following the referendum result, needed immediate international intervention to establish peace and security,” the president said.
The awards went to Paulo Nogueira, Pedro Sosa Pereira and Fernando Pesheiro from Lusa, Pedro Miguel Duarte Costa and Silvestre Bento Rodríguez from SIC, Antonio Pedro Valado from RTP, and Pedro Manuel Mesquita and José Luis Ramos Pinheiro from Radio Resurgence.
The journalists were awarded the Order of Timor-Leste, “which honours national and international figures who have served the Timorese nation, supported the strengthening of social order and made a significant contribution to peace and stability in the country”.
The strength of resistance
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony at the Nicolau Lobato presidential palace in Dili, Jose Ramos Pinheiro said the East Timorese resistance was “something very special and very different” that was “imposed on reality”.
“It’s not the international agenda that’s causing this, it’s the circumstances that a few journalists have uncovered. […] Who is imposing this situation on the international agenda”, said the former Information Director and current manager of the Renascença Multimédia Group.
For José Ramos Pinheiro, this distinction “is a way for journalism to be linked to the success of such cases, which, as the UN Secretary-General says, is perhaps no longer possible today”.
Paulo Nogueira stressed that Lusa had only done his job and that “the heroes here are the Timorese.”
“We, in Lusa, only did our job and the Timorese were the ones who fought, they were the ones who resisted bravely for 24 years under great threats and great violence, saying they wanted independence,” he stressed.
Regarding East Timor’s evolution over the past 25 years, Lusa reporter said that “a country is not built overnight”, but considering that “it is actually starting from scratch because of the destruction of the infrastructure after the referendum”, “the difference is huge”.
“This is the country that the East Timorese wanted, this is why they fought for freedom, independence, to choose their own path. This is what they are doing, so everything is fine,” said Paulo Nogueira.
On 30 August 1999, despite violence by pro-integration militias, 344,580 of a registered population of 446,666 chose national independence, thus ending the Indonesian occupation that had been invading East Timor since 7 December 1975.
As a result of the referendum, Indonesia abandoned East Timor, pro-Indonesian militias left a trail of terror and violence, and a United Nations transitional authority stepped in to administer the country until independence was restored on 20 May 2002.
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