The controversial death of Channel 7 cameraman Gary Cunningham is to be re-examined in an episode of the ABC's Australian Story series.
Cunningham died alongside four other journalists during an attack by Indonesian troops on the East Timorese town of Balibo in 1975.
Introduced by actor Anthony LaPaglia, Flag of Our Father focuses on Cunningham's son, Melbourne environmental officer John Milkins.
Mr Milkins was adopted at birth and never met his father, whose death he had coincidentally studied at university.
He was 19 when he was reunited with his real mother, Heather Norman.
"Heather Norman had never told Gary Cunningham about her pregnancy," an ABC spokesman said.
"He'd been a fleeting boyfriend - a brief holiday romance, as Heather describes it.
"And so begins an extraordinary family reunion and the beginning of John Milkins' journey to understand and seek justice for his father's death."
Cunningham was covering the Indonesian war with two Australians and two Britons when Balibo came under attack.
As journalists, they believed they would not be considered targets.
Their deaths became a political flashpoint, with the Indonesian government claiming the men were East Timorese sympathisers and therefore legitimate targets.
Mr Milkins has played a major role establishing the Flag House, a community learning centre and memorial to the Balibo Five.
He has also been involved in the making of the new Robert Connolly film Balibo, in which LaPaglia plays another Australian journalist, Roger East, who went to East Timor investigate the deaths.
Balibo is due for release on August 13.
Flag of Our Father screens on ABC1 at 8pm on July 20.
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