East Timor's journalists' union has criticised the country's proposed media laws for being too restrictive on journalists.

A provision for a press council to decide who can be a journalist has attracted particular criticism. The government, however, says its draft press law will guarantee, protect and regulate journalistic activities in East Timor.

Tonight in the Hague, the International Court of Justice will deliver its orders in a case that East Timor brought against Australia following the dramatic ASIO raids on the offices of Timor's lawyers preparing for a significant legal proceeding about an oil and gas treaty.

Jakarta – The border between Indonesia's East Nusa Tenggara province and Timor Leste remains prone to drug smuggling, although the police have stepped up efforts to detain suspected individuals entering the area.

Havana, Cuba – Mari Alkatiri, former Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of East Timor, requested from Cuba on Friday in this capital professional and technical assistance in the construction of a special zone for the development of that Asian nation.

Kim Doyle – In early 2013, the Australian Signals Directorate was spying on Indonesian officials involved in trade negotiations with the US. The private communications recorded were most likely relating to disputes over clove cigarettes and prawn exports.

The prime minister of Timor-Leste, Xanana Gusmao, plans to step down in September so a younger generation can lead the tiny nation, his deputy has said.

The vice-prime minister, Fernando La Samma De Araujo, said the resistance leader just wants to be the father of the nation, to oversee the administration as an observer.

Hagar Cohen: Hello, and welcome to Background Briefing, I'm Hagar Cohen.

It was late morning, on the 3rd of December when ASIO launched a raid on the Canberra legal office of Bernard Collaery. His assistant, Chloe Preston, was there alone.

Mong Palatino – East Timor journalists and human rights groups are opposing a government-proposed media law which they believe would lead to possible media censorship and repression in the country. The draft legislation was approved by the Council of Ministers last August, but was introduced in the Parliament just two weeks ago.

Paulina Quintao – The majority of female workers in the private sector do not claim their full maternity leave entitlements due to a fear of losing out on wages, according to Alola Foundation advocacy program manager Maria Barreto.

Attorney-General George Brandis has again defended security service raids on Canberra lawyer Bernard Collaery who was helping East Timor in its case against Australia.

"As the minister who authorised the warrant on the basis of an intelligence case put before me by ASIO that it was a strong case," Senator Brandis told a Senate estimates committee hearing.

Jakarta – Authorities of Silawan village in East Tasifeto, Belu regency, East Nusa Tenggara, which lies on the Indonesian border with Timor Leste, have started to identify and deport citizens of Timor Leste staying in the village ahead of the April 9 legislative election.

David Winning, Sydney – For nearly a decade, East Timor has relied on revenue from a huge natural-gas field to rebuild after the country's war of independence with Indonesia. Now, the tiny nation's outlook is becoming less certain as that gas field runs low on reserves.

Claims that Australia spied on East Timorese negotiators during oil and gas treaty talks in 2004 are at the centre of a legal row that could throw the treaty into doubt. Did Australia seek and gain an unfair advantage for itself and the petroleum company Woodside? Hagar Cohen investigates.

Paulina Quintao – According to research by the Alola Foundation (FA), many female laborers in urban and rural areas are unaware of labor laws ratified in 2012.

Simon Roughneen – A proposed new media code in Timor-Leste is raising hackles among the country's press, who see an attempt to impose curbs on journalists and criminalise transgressions in what has been one of the freer press environments in southeast Asia.

Paulina Quintao – The recent spread of HIV/AIDS poses a big threat to the entire population of Timor-Leste. Member of National Parliament Ilda Maria da Conceicao called on the government to take serious action help prevent the spread of the violence.

Timor Leste's (East Timor's) Oil Fund ended 2013 with assets of US$14.9 billion, the Timor Leste Central Bank said in Dili Tuesday.

On Monday (February 10, 2014) Timorese Prime Minister and Defense Minister Xanana Gusmao met with Indonesian Defense Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro to sign a defense memorandum of understanding meant to boost security and defense ties between the two nations.

Sao Tome and Principe and Timor-Leste (East Timor) was due Friday to start a re-evaluation of the bilateral oil agreements and a study to set up a consortium for onshore exploration of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), the Sao Tome National Oil Agency (ANP) said Thursday.

Daniel Flitton – Vandals have targeted the Australian embassy in East Timor, spray painting a blood-stained parody of the Australian coat of arms with a kangaroo and emu sucking a barrel of "Timor oil".

Mario Filomeno da Costa Pinheiro – The Government of Timor-Leste has indicated that it is committed to joining the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) by 2015, but as the date for the planned accession draws near, questions regarding the benefits of membership, and the young country's readiness, remain unanswered.

David Robie, Auckland (Cafe Pacific/Pacific Media Watch): Timor-Leste Press Club has this week transformed itself into the fledgling Timor-Leste Press Union and now seeks to become affiliated to the Brussels-based International Federation of Journalists.

Jakarta – The Indonesian and Timor Leste governments have agreed to boost security and defense ties during a meeting between Defense Minister Poernomo Yusgiantoro and visiting Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, which was a follow-up to a memorandum of understanding signed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and then Timor Leste president Jose Ramos Horta in Dili in 2012.

Paulina Quintao – Minister Isabel Amaral Guterres warned the MSS will halt natural disaster relieve assistance to victims because of cases where construction materials given by the government are re-sold.

Minister Guterres said the government's support is to assist victims of natural disasters repair their homes not for them to re-sell the materials provided.

Paulina Quintao – The Monitoring and Advocacy Officer for Programs at the Timor-Leste Coalition for Education (TLCE), Joao Soares R. Pequinho, said language is a barrier to the quality of education in Timor-Leste and reality shows more children have greater command of the Indonesian language than of Portuguese.

Loro Horta – Contact between Chinese and Timorese dates back to the early 15th century when the ships of the legendary Chinese explorer Admiral Zheng He arrived on the island in search of the famed sandalwood highly valued in Ming China for incense and medicinal purposes.

David Robie – The proposed Timor-Leste media law is a draconian mixed bag. And it is ironical that such a document with lofty claims of protecting the freedom of the press should be shrouded in secrecy for the past six months.

Ezequiel Freitas – The Timor-Leste Parliamentary Women's Group (GMPTL) intends to propose legislation to regulate pornography in the country.

GMPTL member MP Brigida Correia said the group held consultations with representatives from other nations about the implementation of similar legislation in their countries.

Philip Dorling – Australia's chief intelligence watchdog has been drawn into a legal battle over government claims that Australia's relations with Indonesia are too fragile to allow the release of secret archives about military operations and war crimes in East Timor.

David Robie – A year after Indonesian troops killed more than 270 peaceful demonstrators at the cemetery of Santa Cruz in the Timor-Leste capital of Dili in 1991, news footage secretly shot by a cameraman surfaced in a powerful new film.

Thea Cowie – The Administrative Appeals Tribunal in Canberra has ordered declassification of a number of documents which the federal government argues may inflame already tense relations with Indonesia.

Rose Iser – Concerns about Australia's troubled relationship with Indonesia are behind the government's refusal to release secret 30-year-old documents about the war in East Timor.

Paulina Quintao – The Disability Working Group (DWG) Timor-Leste President, Joaquin Soares, demands the Government of Timor-Leste ratify the International Convention on the Rights of the Disabled so the rights of Timorese living with disability are protected.

Tunggal Pawestri – In the second week of December 2013, I visited Dili, Timor Leste. It was not my first visit. Since 2009, every year I go there two or three times a year because of my work in the development sector.

Paulina Quintao – Human Rights Activist, Joao Soares Pequinho, believes the Timor-Leste's government failed to implement the recommendations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) for better legislation protecting the rights of Timorese children and in providing children with adequate social assistance.

Philip Dorling – Federal Attorney-General George Brandis has moved to block the release of secret archives that would reveal the Australian government's knowledge of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor.

Tom Allard – In the International Court of Justice this week, as lawyers from Australia and East Timor traded barbs and legal argument in equal measure, the emotions have been raw.

Paul Cleary – It was a case of saving the best to last. On the third and final day of the proceedings brought by East Timor before the International Court of Justice in The Hague this week, vice-president Bernardo Sepulveda Amor put what seemed like a very tough question to Australia's phalanx of 15 legal representatives.

The East Timor spying scandal currently in the Hague is the latest in a long history of Australian aid being used as a cover for intelligence agencies, writes Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon.

Tom Allard – The Australian government has admitted it wants to block a former spy turned whistleblower from giving evidence to an international tribunal where East Timor is challenging a treaty between the two countries splitting lucrative oil and gas revenues.

Daniel Hurst – Timor-Leste has told the international court of justice it rejects the "careless and outrageous" suggestion it was encouraging the violation of Australian laws about intelligence secrets, as Australia warned lives could be put at risk by the disclosures.

Kate Lamb – At the international court of justice in The Hague this week, the tiny half-island nation of Timor-Leste has accused Australia of violating its sovereignty in a souring battle for natural resources.

The case relates to a protracted dispute over the Greater Sunrise field, an estimated $40bn worth of oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.

Paulina Quintao – The Asian Federation for Involuntary Disappearances (AFAD) composed by Nepal, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, El Salvador and Timor-Leste, urge the Timor-Leste State to urgently ratify the Convention on Involuntary Disappearances.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott is being urged to negotiate with East Timor to establish permanent maritime boundaries with Australia's northern neighbour, determining clear ownership of valuable oil and gas fields.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign has called on Mr Abbott to show goodwill and draw a divide that gives East Timor fair ownership of resources close to its coastline.

Tom Allard – Australia has accused East Timor of making "frankly, offensive" remarks before the International Court of Justice about Attorney-General George Brandis, as its lawyers suggested the tiny nation may have encouraged the commitment of a serious crime here.

The Timor Sea Justice Campaign has launched an open letter to Prime Minister Tony Abbot urging him to establish permanent maritime boundaries with East Timor in accordance with international law and is asking members of the public to put their names to it.

Tom Allard – East Timor has called on the International Court of Justice to deliver a "clear, firm and severe" condemnation of Australia for using ASIO agents to raid the office of its Canberra-based lawyer.

Mary Gearin – Australia has rejected East Timor's arguments that it has the right to demand the return of materials seized in an ASIO raid last year.

Amsterdam – East Timor demanded on Monday that Australia return seized documents relating to the two countries' negotiations over oil and gas reserves thought to be worth tens of billions of dollars.

Tom Allard – Attorney-General George Brandis has given an extraordinary undertaking not to read highly sensitive documents seized by ASIO agents in a raid on East Timor's lawyer last year as Australia tries to thwart the fledgling nation's bid in the International Court of Justice to have the material returned.