Wednesday this week (15 April) will be the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster when 96 Liverpool fans died in Sheffield at the soon-to-be-abandoned FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest.

hillsboroughI was living and working in the Lake District in 1989 and was leading a youth group around Rydal Water that afternoon. When I got back to the car and switched the radio on in order to catch the score, it took my a long time to figure out what was happening. My younger brother was at the match and it took hours to discover that he was OK. I think everyone in Liverpool knew someone who had died.

As the anniversary approaches, the media coverage is building up and has been (in my humble opinion) sensitive, helpful and respectful. Questions remain and the bereaved still believe that justice has not yet been fully done.

hillsboroughmemorial2But the galling thing for me is the silence of the Sun newspaper on its role in the post-disaster scandal. Looking at today’s coverage, for example, there is no mention of the newspaper’s shameful and disgusting allegations at the time that Liverpool fans had caused the trouble, had robbed corpses and urinated on the dead and dying. Apologies followed – only, one suspects, because of the outrage caused and the subsequent disappearance of the Sun from Liverpool’s shops. I still don’t know any Scousers who would buy the wretched tabloid rag.

Is the Sun going to say anything about this episode and review its own behaviour honestly? Or will it simply pretend it never happened – hiding behind the memorials and the many moving human-interest stories? After all, it is only a matter of telling the truth and reporting accurately, isn’t it?

I am waiting with baited breath…

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