A Moment Of Journalism History Aaron Irwin

15 th April 1989  Hillsborough Stadium, Sheffield, Liverpool v Nottingham Forest, FA Cup Semi Final.

At 3:06pm…  Due to the Leppings Lane end of the stadium being too overcrowded, a 'crush’ barrier broke, causing many injuries and the game to be abandoned six minutes in.  As entry to the stand was only available through one gate, police opened another gate to ease the pressure of overcrowding, which was usually controlled by police, not on this occasion…  Supporters climbed over side fences, and were lifted up into the stand above in order to escape the crush.  When the barrier broke, fans fell on top of each other, The advertising hoardings were torn down to use as stretchers to help get injured fans out of the stand.

'Crush’ “A number of people pressed closely together.”

A History…  It wasn't the first time Liverpool fans had been in a stadium disaster…  In 1985, on the night of the European Cup Final, Liverpool fans were involved in the Heysel Stadium Disaster. Fans from Liverpool and Italian side Juventus.  The stadium was said to be crumbling already, and fans were only separated by a layer of chicken wire.  ‘After a sustained period of missiles being thrown by both sets of supporters, some Liverpool fans charged at their Italian counterparts and, as chaos took over, Juventus fans fled only for a wall blocking their escape to collapse on top of them. Thirty-nine football supporters died where they fell.’ (Taken from the Liverpool FC website.)

A History…  Because of Heysel, Police found it easier to blame the Liverpool fans.  “We’re going to put the blame on this, where it deserves to be, on the drunken ticketless Liverpool supporters, and we need to find the evidence to show that this is the case.’  Around 116 Police statements were amended. West Midlands police were investigating South Yorkshire police and knew the statements had been altered but weren't aware of the extent to which they'd been altered.  Prominent Liverpool fans blamed the police. Dr John Ashton went on TV in a damming report of the police, but behind the scenes was being told to shut up.

The Press…  Four days after the tragedy, The Sun published police reports which were, at the time, unproven.  They wrote that Liverpool fans were urinating on rescue workers and pickpocketing the victims.  The Sun were the only paper to call the claims fact.  The Sun weren't the only guilty party….

The Sheffield Star The Daily Star

Edward Pearce  "For the second time in half a decade a large body of Liverpool supporters has killed people...the shrine in the Anfield goalmouth, the cursing of the police, all the theatricals, come sweetly to a city which is already the world capital of self-pity. There are soapy politicians to make a pet of Liverpool, and Liverpool itself is always standing by to make a pet of itself. 'Why us? Why are we treated like animals?' To which the plain answer is that a good and sufficient minority of you behave like animals." He said that if there was any blame on the South Yorkshire police, it was: "for not realising what brutes they had to handle.”

The Repercussions…  Nearly the whole city of Liverpool boycotted The Sun from that day onwards.  In fact even today many Liverpudlians refuse to buy the paper on account of the report.

Verdict  Inquests in 1991 found the cause was accidental death on behalf of the fans. Police were advocated of any blame.  This was met by understandable outrage from the fans and families involved.  A justice campaign was started by Anne Williams, mother of one of the fans, spearheaded the campaign and fought relentlessly for justice to be made.

2012  September 2012 saw the inquests of accidental death overturned, but this time two inquests began.  One was regarding who caused the accident, and the other was into whether the police covered the truth up or not.  Anne Williams died in 2012 and was presented with the Helen Rollason award at the 2013 Sports Personality Of The Year awards.

Apology  Kelvin Mackenzie, editor of The Sun at the time, explained his actions in When asked about Hillsborough, he said: "I regret Hillsborough. It was a fundamental mistake. The mistake was I believed what an MP said. It was a Tory MP. If he had not said it and the Chief Superintendent (David Duckenfield) had not agreed with it, we would not have gone with it.“  In 2006 however Mackenzie somewhat retracted his apology, saying he'd only done it because Rupert Murdoch, owner of The Sun, had ordered him to do so.  "I was not sorry then and I'm not sorry now.” MacKenzie refused to apologise when appearing on the BBC's Question Time on 11 January 2007.

Apology Taken from The Sun Online

Bibliography   order/ /Hillsborough-The-Sun-profoundly-sorry-over-false-fan- conduct-reports.html order/ /Hillsborough-The-Sun-profoundly-sorry-over-false-fan- conduct-reports.html  BBC Panorama – How They Buried The Truth  t_Panel t_Panel