tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/hillsborough-disaster-24204/articlesHillsborough disaster – The Conversation2022-11-10T12:13:01Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1939812022-11-10T12:13:01Z2022-11-10T12:13:01ZSeoul Halloween crush: understanding the science of crowds could help prevent disasters – here’s how<p>When I was a teenager, the 1980s felt like a decade of disasters. We watched a terrible human cost being paid live on TV in a series of football-related disasters. </p>
<p>I saw bodies stretchered away on advertising hoardings at <a href="https://theconversation.com/hillsborough-disaster-a-revealing-analysis-of-the-language-in-witness-statements-161715">Hillsborough</a> stadium in Sheffield, the back-and-forth terrace skirmishes at <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-32898612">Heysel</a> in Brussels that prefaced a fatal crush, a man walking calmly out of the burning stand at <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-61399583">Bradford</a>, his entire body ablaze. Crowd catastrophes dominated my youth. </p>
<p>Much of my work as a computer scientist has focused on modelling complex systems made up of many interacting components. These may be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jan/06/featuresreviews.guardianreview8">DNA molecules</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/engineered-bacteria-are-helping-us-add-memory-to-living-computers-62835">bacteria in a dish</a>, social insects, or even people. </p>
<p>Decades after Hillsborough, after working at the University of Liverpool and hearing first-hand accounts of the horrors of that day, my colleagues and I turned our attention to the problem of crowd crush. Our <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0028747">first paper on this topic</a> considered how we might detect crush in computational simulations of crowds.</p>
<p>Over the past decade, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about one fundamental question: what’s wrong with our understanding of crowds? The answer, it turns out, is a lot. </p>
<p>This was highlighted, once again, by the recent tragic events on Halloween in <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/asia/east-asia/seoul-halloween-crush-south-korea-stampede-video-b2214792.html">Seoul, South Korea</a>. The death toll stands at 156, with hundreds more injured, and the investigation is still under way. But this disaster brings several important points into sharp focus.</p>
<h2>Crowd disasters are almost always preventable</h2>
<p>South Korean authorities have already <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/01/seoul-halloween-crowd-crush-south-korea-itaewon-police-response">admitted to failures</a>, but this is relatively unusual. Apart from the potential legal ramifications, it’s not always obvious who has responsibility for keeping crowds safe, as in <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2022/10/31/asia/seoul-itaewon-halloween-mourning-memorial-intl-hnk/index.html">Seoul</a>, where a crush happened outside the context of an organised event. </p>
<p>A year after the Astroworld, Texas, incident in which 10 people died, <a href="https://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/2022/11/03/a-year-after-astroworld-festival-deaths-no-clear-answers-on-accountability/">arguments are still raging</a> about who was responsible. Although South Korea, <a href="https://www.hse.gov.uk/pubns/indg142.htm">like many other countries</a>, has guidelines for the planning and safe delivery of large events, this carries with it the assumption that there will be an identifiable organiser.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A very busy Tokyo street." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494488/original/file-20221109-21-luwui3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Cities are getting bigger and busier.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Perati Komson/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>That wasn’t the case in South Korea. Police were deployed to perform their usual traffic, crime and public order functions, but there appears to have been no high-level plan in place to deal with a large influx of people into <a href="https://www.wunc.org/2022-10-31/heres-why-seouls-itaewon-district-was-so-packed-ahead-of-the-deadly-crowd-surge">the Itaewon district</a>, and early warning signs were either <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-63481769">missed or ignored</a>. </p>
<p>Proper planning is absolutely key to public safety. Authorities need to anticipate potential risks, not just for specific events, but wherever large numbers of people are likely to gather. Calculating the safe capacity of spaces, anticipating crowd flows, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2058802X.2019.1594138">dynamically assessing the size of crowds</a> and ensuring that safe capacities aren’t exceeded on the ground are the bare minimum that should be done. </p>
<p>Fundamentally, it’s important to learn from previous incidents, and ensure that put proper plans are always in place. It will be difficult and expensive, but the cost of doing nothing is far worse. So long as people want to gather in large numbers, there will be risks, and we cannot afford the luxury of simply hoping for the best. </p>
<h2>Inaccurate language causes problems</h2>
<p>Many media outlets automatically referred to the incident as a “<a href="https://news.sky.com/story/at-least-120-dead-after-stampede-during-halloween-festivities-in-itaewon-south-korea-12733277">stampede</a>”. This is one of the most persistent misunderstandings about the crowd. It brings to mind a herd of animals, and we’re almost conditioned into thinking that when a crowd disaster happens, it’s because people panic and trample on others in a desperate race to escape from something. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13669877.2022.2049622">But that hardly ever happens</a>. Stampede is a massively problematic term, both because it’s inaccurate, and because it implies that victims are somehow to blame. And it contributes to the ongoing “panic” myth that crowds are somehow “<a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/crowd-control/">mad, bad, and dangerous to know</a>”.</p>
<h2>Life’s becoming more urban</h2>
<p>Unfortunately, it’s likely that another disaster on the scale of Seoul will happen in the near future. As life becomes increasingly urbanised, we need to understand the crowd more than ever. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789241565271">Some projections</a> claim that, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will live in cities. Already a commuter nation the size of Sweden and Portugal combined flows in and out of Tokyo <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/1317406/japan-commuter-number-by-greater-metropolitan-area/">every working day</a>. </p>
<p>As more people move into cities, we will have to think hard about how people move around and how they should be safely managed. Urban design and planning processes already embed insights from crowd science but, more broadly, societies also need a much more integrated approach to crowd management.</p>
<p>We need to understand groups of people as complex, dynamical systems made up of human “parts” interacting with one another and with their environment, and move beyond the tired narratives of “mob”, “stampede” and “panic” that unfortunately still dominate discussions of crowds. This will require further support for an inter-disciplinary approach that draws on physics, computer science, social psychology, sociology, criminology, policing and politics. </p>
<p>Our wider society needs to understand crowds much more deeply, in terms of how they work on a social level, how they can make our cities more enjoyable places to live, and how they can bring with them resilience, security, and improvements in wellbeing.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193981/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Martyn Amos has previously received funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council for a project on enhanced evacuation drills. </span></em></p>A better understanding of how crowds work is vital as more of the world’s population move to cities.Martyn Amos, Professor of Computer and Information Sciences, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1617152021-06-02T12:37:49Z2021-06-02T12:37:49ZHillsborough disaster: a revealing analysis of the language in witness statements<p>The Hillsborough disaster of April 15 1989 led to the deaths of 96 Liverpool fans. They were crushed on the terraces at the FA Cup semi-final as their team started play on the pitch. That afternoon the match commander, David Duckenfield, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2015/mar/11/hillsborough-top-police-officer-says-he-is-blank-about-two-hours">falsely reported</a> to the FA that fans forced an egress gate – Gate C – and pushed through into the ground without tickets. This lie set the narrative that was later perpetuated in and by the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillsborough_disaster#/media/File:Hillsborough_disaster_Sun.jpg">tabloid press</a>, which was that the fans arrived drunk, ticketless and too late to get into the ground. In short, they were to blame for the tragedy. This false narrative has apparent resonances in many police officers’ witness statements.</p>
<p>In 2012, following decades of academic research by criminologist <a href="https://www.qub.ac.uk/schools/SchoolofLaw/pre-law-reading/phil-scraton/">Phil Scraton</a> and an impassioned <a href="https://www.theanfieldwrap.com/tag/hillsborough-justice-campaign/">justice campaign</a>, the <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229038/0581.pdf">Hillsborough Independent Panel</a> found that police had <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/229038/0581.pdf">changed statements</a> and that it had been the police case that the blame for the disaster should be placed on to Liverpool fans. An <a href="https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-disaster-inquests-verdicts-delivered-11240268">inquest</a> found the same in 2016.</p>
<p>My new research has delved even further into those statements and revealed how the language used in police statements helped fuel the false narrative about what happened that day. I have shown, for example, that more subtle aspects which had the effect of blame-shifting characterised the process of taking statements from football fans and Hillsborough residents.</p>
<h2>My work</h2>
<p>I <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338701468_'Retelling_Hillsborough'_in_Narrative_Retellings_Stylistic_Approaches_ed_Marina_Lambrou_Bloomsbury_Press">analysed</a> 17 residents’ statements contained in a West Midlands Police (WMP) report that was compiled for the director of public prosecutions (DPP) in 1990. Police took hundreds of residents’ statements, but the WMP report offers no indication as to why these 17 were selected for inclusion in this report.</p>
<p>In the statements, a voice other than the witnesses is also present – the institutional voice of the police. One linguistic cue that signals this voice in a witness statement is negation – which is saying what did not happen. If I report something that did not happen then I am conveying that the non-event is newsworthy. This is because there are an infinite number of things that do not happen in the world and so my reporting of the non-event must have some level of narrative significance.</p>
<p>There are many instances of negation in the WMP report statements in which the negated element can be considered reasonably relevant or, to use the linguistic term, “felicitous”. An example of a felicitous negation in a statement is “I do not know what time this was”. Police are <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780203168097-15/comparison-policespeak-normalspeak-preliminary-study-gwyneth-fox">fixated by time</a>, and it is not unusual to find many references to time in witness statements. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if I report something that is unexpected or for which there is little or no expectation of relevance, the negation seems odd or “infelicitous”. The following examples are infelicitous negations from four of the 17 residents’ statements, but there are many more:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I did not see any loitering with the exception of several fans who were openly urinating in the road.</p>
<p>They were still just talking to each other and not misbehaving.</p>
<p>I saw groups of supporters standing around on pavements talking. They were not misbehaving at all.</p>
<p>On Saturday (15/04/89) most of the supporters I spoke to left and didn’t cause any trouble.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These examples are “infelicitous” because there were no mentions of “loitering”, “misbehaving” or “causing trouble” up until these points in the witness statements. There is no antecedent to link to these odd occurrences of statements about what did not happen.</p>
<p>Such constructions suggest that at these points, police officers asked questions (such as “did you see any loitering?”) and the witnesses responded “no”. As witness statements do not incorporate question-and-answer sequences, the witness’s negated response to an undocumented question is reformulated here which reads as if the witness volunteered this information.</p>
<p>As these activities did not happen, it is very odd that a witness would offer this information. To give a flavour of how pervasive this is, in these 17 statements there were a total of 143 negations but only 44 were felicitous. That means 99 instances were infelicitous. </p>
<p>Looking closer at the events that are negated, 93 of them relate to the same key themes of alcohol, causing trouble or buying and selling tickets. This means that what fans did not do features just as prominently, if not more prominently, in these residents’ statements than what fans did do. These negations indicate that police officers introduced and controlled these topics, and their pervasiveness suggests that they fixated on the key themes they themselves introduced.</p>
<p>Negation is not the only linguistic cue that builds a dominant narrative that reflects badly on Liverpool fans. For example, police used leading questions in questionnaires circulated around the local neighbourhood. The same key themes emerge again:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(i) DID YOU WITNESS ANY INCIDENTS OF DRUNKENNESS OR DISORDERLY BEHAVIOUR OF ANY OF THE FANS? (BRIEF DESCRIPTION) INCLUDE TIME OF INCIDENT.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The same kinds of questions featured in questionnaires given out in pubs and licensed premises:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>(ii) WAS ANY DAMAGE CAUSED TO YOUR PREMISES?</p>
<p>(iii) WERE YOU SUBJECTED TO ANY THREATS OR VIOLENCE BY FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS?</p>
<p>(iv) DID FOOTBALL SUPPORTERS STEAL ALCOHOL TO YOUR KNOWLEDGE? EXPLAIN BRIEFLY AND ESTIMATE QUANTITY.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Latest findings</h2>
<p>On May 26, the case against two senior South Yorkshire police personnel, Donald Denton and Alan Foster, and the force solicitor, Peter Metcalf, for perverting the course of justice (by amending statements), was discharged.</p>
<p>But it’s vital to note that the charges were dropped on the grounds that the prosecution had <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Hillsborough-Ruling.pdf">“no case to answer”</a>. Because the statements in question had been prepared for the public inquiry into the disaster rather than for a case in a court of law, it could not be said that the men perverted justice. </p>
<p>Additionally, the judge did not find that anything done by any of the defendants had a tendency to pervert the course of public justice in relation to other proceedings. The decision did not rely on an assessment of whether statements had been altered – a fact that is not in dispute.</p>
<p>And as linguistic assessment of witness statements shows, a statement doesn’t need to be literally altered to give a misleading picture of events.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161715/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Patricia Canning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Witnesses spent a surprising amount of time talking about what didn’t happen that day – which is very significant.Patricia Canning, Lecturer/Researcher, Forensic Stylistics, Linguistics, and Rhetoric, Utrecht UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/866642017-11-02T13:06:44Z2017-11-02T13:06:44ZNew ‘Hillsborough Law’ needed to tackle ‘burning injustice’ and empower victims and family<p>A report into the treatment of the 96 Hillsborough victims’ families <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hillsborough-police-duty-of-candour-burning-injustice-cultural-change-families-tragedy-bishop-james-a8031161.html">by the former bishop of Liverpool James Jones</a> supports the proposed “<a href="http://www.thehillsboroughlaw.com/">Hillsborough Law</a>” – which would force public bodies and public officials to tell the truth. </p>
<p>Titled <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/655892/6_3860_HO_Hillsborough_Report_2017_FINAL_WEB_updated.pdf">The Patronising Disposition of Unaccountable Power</a>, the report looked at the families’ 27-year ordeal – between the 1989 disaster and the end of the inquests in April 2016. It puts further pressure on the government to make sure future victims and their loved ones don’t have to endure years of lies and misinformation. </p>
<p>The report by Jones, who chaired the <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/">independent panel</a> – which uncovered evidence that led to new inquests – was requested by the prime minister Theresa May, when she was home secretary. </p>
<p>The Hillsborough Law is an initiative of the victims’ families. It would prevent the obstruction and reputation management by police and others that made the 27-year process so tragic. The Law would require public bodies to act with “candour” – simply put, to tell the truth. But “candour” means more than just not lying. It would require the police and other public bodies to cooperate fully with investigations. Under the Hillsborough Law, victims can apply to the High Court or an inquiry chair to force public bodies to set out their position and make it clear what they say they did right, and what they accept they did wrong. </p>
<h2>Duty of Candour</h2>
<p>There is already a common-law duty of candour in the UK, but its limitations were laid bare in the Hillsborough Inquests. For two years, the various police parties refused to accept any failings. They convinced the coroner that the jury should not be told about the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-19575770">2012 apology by the then chief constable of the South Yorkshire Police</a>, who stated that: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>In the immediate aftermath senior officers sought to change the record of events…</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Disgraceful lies were told which blamed the Liverpool fans for the disaster.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>These two admissions were central to the Hillsborough families’ cases. But they were ignored by the police and their lawyers during the inquests. Instead they again argued aggressively that the disaster was the fans’ fault. <a href="http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/cost-of-hillsborough-inquest-to-top-70m-1-7876140">This ensured that the hearing took longer</a>, cost more and inflicted more pain on the families who were forced to endure it. </p>
<p>Under the Hillsborough Law, failing to comply with the duty of candour by a public official or public body would be a crime. If an official misleads the public, the media, court or inquiry, he or she could be fined or go to prison for two years. So in the Hillsborough Inquests, the police would not have been able to pretend that the 2012 apology didn’t happen. It would have spared the families and the public purse <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hillsborough-disaster-how-the-cross-examination-of-david-duckenfield-was-a-shocking-landmark-in-the-10124308.html">tortuous weeks of cross examination</a>. </p>
<h2>From Hillsborough to Grenfell</h2>
<p>Proposed with cross-party support, the Hillsborough Law had <a href="https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2016-17/publicauthorityaccountability.html">its first reading in parliament</a> in March this year, but fell because of the general election. But the bishop’s report highlights the costs of inaction. The letter to Theresa May, and a <a href="https://twitter.com/davidlammy/status/924765067194793985">big push on twitter</a> to coincide with the release of the bishop’s report may resurrect the bill in this parliament – and there is no better time. The Grenfell Tower disaster is another tragedy that will require support for the victims and candour from public bodies. </p>
<p>The immediacy of the apparent failings at Grenfell was shocking. We saw the fire spread with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/video/2017/jun/14/grenfell-tower-blaze-video-explainer?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other">terrifying speed on television</a> and soon learned of the <a href="https://www.shortlist.com/news/grenfell-tower-london-fire-blog-post-warning/59534">Tenancy Association’s warnings</a> to the intractable management committee. We saw the <a href="http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/fears-riots-streets-anger-over-10633012">anger in the streets</a> at the Council’s relief and rehousing effort. Initial demands were made for a report <a href="http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/west-london-news/sadiq-khan-slams-council-grenfell-13326821">by the end of summer</a>, but the survivors and families were forced to settle for a <a href="https://www.grenfelltowerinquiry.org.uk/">longer public inquiry</a> chaired by Sir Martin Moore-Bick – a retired judge. </p>
<p>The Hillsborough Law would empower the Grenfell victims and their families to demand that the public bodies involved cooperate fully and openly with the inquiry. These bodies would be forced to tell the truth, and be clear about any failures. If the Law is passed, the legacy of Hillsborough will help to create a new era of transparency and justice for victims and their families.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86664/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Ficklin is the Director of the Liverpool Law Clinic. Clinic students worked voluntarily on the Hillsborough Inquests on behalf of Brodie Jackson Canter which represented 22 families. Jared is also active in the Hillsborough Law campaign group. </span></em></p>This is about more than justice for the 96.Jared Ficklin, Lecturer in Law, Liverpool Law Clinic, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/813412017-07-20T17:58:18Z2017-07-20T17:58:18ZThe Demba Diop stadium football crush: Is this Senegal’s Hillsborough?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179047/original/file-20170720-23983-10iy7pf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Survivors of a stampede at Demba Diop stadium, Senegal. Eight people were killed when a wall collapsed after fighting started between fans. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">EPA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s the evening of Saturday July 15: Stade de Mbour meeting Union Sportive (US) Ouakam in the Senegalese League Cup final at the Demba Diop stadium in Dakar. With the score evenly poised at 1-1 and the match having entered extra time, the team from Mbour, 80 kilometres south of the capital, scored what would prove to be the decisive goal.</p>
<p>The fans of Ouakam – a suburb of Dakar – started turning on their rivals, charging towards the fans in the Mbour section of the stadium and throwing rocks. As the Mbour fans sought refuge in one corner of the stand, part of a supporting wall gave way, plunging them into the ditch which surrounds the pitch. In the fall and ensuing panic, eight people lost their lives and around a 100 more were injured. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-14093674">Senegal</a>’s worst ever <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40621982">sporting disaster</a>, some difficult questions had to be asked. How could this be allowed to happen? Who was to blame? And what would be the consequences? </p>
<p>An immediate scapegoat was found in the shape of US Ouakam. Their fans were reported to have initiated the violence which triggered the incident. The team was swiftly <a href="http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/40634432">suspended</a> indefinitely from all official competitions. The disorderly behaviour of sport fans in general was widely condemned. Indeed, this has been a recurring theme in Senegal’s sporting landscape for some time. It might be considered surprising, however, that the violence should reach its apex at a football match.</p>
<h2>Warnings about the stadium</h2>
<p>While living in Dakar and conducting ethnographic <a href="http://global-sport.eu/research-team">fieldwork</a> on the trajectories of aspiring athletes, I regularly attended both football matches and wrestling fights at stadia and arenas across the city. It included Demba Diop stadium, where most of the biggest wrestling events are held. </p>
<p>I was frequently warned by friends to avoid certain areas outside the stadium prior to or after the event. They warned me to leave the stadium early, or to stay away entirely and watch it on TV instead. On more than one occasion, I did get caught up in violent skirmishes where blows were exchanged, objects including chairs and bottles were thrown, and crowds were crushed into small areas as they tried to escape the violence. Senegalese sport fans are a passionate bunch. A trip to the stadium can turn into a volatile experience in the event of an unpopular outcome.</p>
<p>But all of these incidents and security warnings took place in the context of <em>lutte avec frappe</em> – <a href="https://theconversation.com/senegalese-wrestle-with-ethnicity-while-reaching-for-dreams-of-success-66073">wrestling with punches</a> – Senegal’s national sport, which has a reputation for being steeped in occult activities and violence. Football, by comparison, is considered relatively peaceful, in part due to the significantly lower interest in domestic competition. </p>
<p>When I went to the Demba Diop stadium to watch the semifinal of the football League Cup in 2015, there were only a handful of fans in an otherwise deserted stadium. Indeed, the matches of the <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-african-fans-love-european-football-a-senegalese-perspective-79856">inter-district navétanes championships</a> are often <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-african-fans-love-european-football-a-senegalese-perspective-79856">better attended</a> than the main league and cup formats, due to their important role in fostering community togetherness and local pride. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179023/original/file-20170720-23983-1ay2oyi.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Normally very few fans attend football matches at Demba Diop, like this game in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Mark Hann</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While there is no excuse for the unacceptable behaviour of a small minority of fans, the situation at Demba Diop was compounded by a glaring lack of security. One source told me that there was a cordon of only 10 police officers separating the two groups of fans, and that they left the scene once they realised that they could not control the escalating violence. </p>
<p>Other eyewitnesses <a href="http://www.jeuneafrique.com/458070/societe/senegal-alpha-raconte-nuit-de-violences-de-panique-stade-demba-diop/">suggested</a> that there was simply not enough security in the ground – and that those who were there simply observed proceedings without trying to intervene. An investigation has been launched to answer some of the pressing questions which arise from this tragedy: how many fans were allowed into the stadium? How could they bring in rocks and other projectiles? Was there sufficient security present? And was their response – which included the deployment of teargas to counter the crowd violence – appropriate?</p>
<h2>Complacency of political authorities</h2>
<p>For many Senegalese, the Demba Diop disaster is just the latest in a series of incidents which have demonstrated the negligence and complacency of political authorities in guaranteeing the safety of citizens. In recent months, <a href="http://www.dakaractu.com/Incendie-meurtrier-aux-Parcelles-Assainies-Ousseynou-Diaz-a-enterre-ses-cinq-enfants_a131427.html">fires</a> in the Dakar suburb of Parcelles Assainies and at a <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/04/13/20-killed-in-fire-at-muslim-spiritual-retreat-in-senegal.html">religious festival</a> in Medina Gounass, as well as mass traffic accidents in <a href="https://www.nst.com.my/news/2017/03/218210/18-killed-senegal-truck-bus-crash">Saint-Louis</a> and <a href="http://www.lesoleil.sn/2016-03-22-23-37-00/item/60581-kaffrine-16-morts-et-18-blesses-dans-un-accident.html">Kaffrine</a> have claimed many lives. </p>
<p>Some commentators have been dismayed by the lack of official response and accountability. Both President Macky Sall and Sports Minister Matar Ba have <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/07/dead-senegal-football-stadium-stampede-170715213844314.html">declared</a> that the events at the stadium will be examined in a full inquiry. But, it remains to be seen whether these are anything more than hollow promises. </p>
<p>Demba Diop stadium was <a href="http://openbuildings.com/buildings/stade-demba-diop-profile-36814?_show_description=1">constructed</a> in 1963, and some minor repairs have been carried out since. However, its crumbling walls and dilapidated stands bear testimony to its age. Senior officials have been calling for the refurbishment and modernisation of the stadium for several years. Until now, almost nothing has been done, despite the fact that the venue also plays host to official international matches. </p>
<p>In the aftermath of Saturday’s events, the former Chelsea and Senegal striker Demba Ba <a href="https://twitter.com/dembabafoot/status/886536065464635393">tweeted</a> his discontent with the lack of funding for the country’s football venues. It seems that it has taken the deaths of eight innocent people to provoke the authorities into taking action. With tensions in Senegal already riding high due to the <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/senegals-ex-president-returns-for-legislative-elections-20170711">legislative elections</a> at the end of July, all major sporting events have been <a href="http://kwese.espn.com/football/senegal/story/3159293/senegal-suspend-sports-events-after-tragedy">suspended</a> until then. </p>
<p>What happened at the Demba Diop stadium is sadly not an isolated event in the global context. A combination of decrepit stadia, poor security, and a failure to control crowd violence have led to similar disasters in <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/killed-stadium-stampede-malawi-48471155">Malawi</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-38939723">Angola</a> and <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/international/at-least-four-dead-and-more-injured-after-stampede-at-honduran-football-match-a7761386.html">Honduras</a> this year alone. And while stadium safety has improved immeasurably in Europe thanks to safety measures including the introduction of all-seater football grounds, the horrors of <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-32898612">Heysel</a>, <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-merseyside-32898612">Bradford</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-disaster-deadly-mistakes-and-lies-that-lasted-decades">Hillsborough</a> live on in the memories of football fans.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/179026/original/file-20170720-24021-ah61gk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thousands gathered last year in remembrance of those who died at the Hillsborough disaster, that claimed the lives of 96 people in 1989.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Peter Powell/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, it was only last month (June 2017) that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/28/hillsborough-six-people-including-two-senior-police-officers-charged">charges</a> were brought against those responsible for the Hillsborough disaster of 1989, in which 96 Liverpool fans lost their lives. The scale of negligence and the ensuing police cover-up which reached the upper echelons of British politics, have been gradually pieced together over the course of a lengthy campaign and multiple inquests and inquiries. </p>
<p>There are parallels to be drawn to the Demba Diop disaster: an initial focus on blaming fans, inadequate stadium design and maintenance, and insufficient or negligent security. As Senegal mourns the victims and searches for answers, it is to be hoped that lessons are learned, and consequences are swift. </p>
<p><em>This article is based partly on research conducted as part of the <a href="http://global-sport.eu/">GLOBALSPORT</a> project based at the University of Amsterdam and funded by the European Research Council.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/81341/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Hann receives funding from the European Research Council.</span></em></p>As Senegal mourns the victims of the Demba Diop football stadium crush and searches for answers, it is to be hoped that lessons are learned, and consequences are swift.Mark Hann, Doctoral student in Anthropology, University of AmsterdamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/795052017-06-22T19:14:26Z2017-06-22T19:14:26ZThe Grenfell Tower inquiry: learning from Hillsborough<p>Now that the enormity of the Grenfell Tower tragedy is apparent, it is clear that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/14/fire-safety-concerns-raised-by-grenfell-tower-residents-in-2012">residents’ concerns</a> about the building’s design, structure and fabric had been ignored, suggesting a catastrophic dereliction of responsibility by corporate and public bodies. In the hours and days that followed, the bereaved and survivors were left, homeless and destitute, to fend for themselves, while social and mainstream media carried often ill-informed demands for an immediate wide-ranging investigation.</p>
<p>The government has now <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/21/victims-advocate-role-created-in-response-to-grenfell-fire">indicated its intention</a> to establish a judicial inquiry, a decision greeted with understandable caution by the community – who fear it will not deliver the necessarily independent, prompt or thorough investigation. One <a href="https://www.change.org/p/this-government-must-carry-out-a-fully-transparent-investigation-into-the-grenfell-tragedy-allowing-for-meaningful-participation-of-the-residents-their-families-and-the-surrounding-community-their-voices-must-be-heard">online petition</a> demanding transparency and “meaningful investigation” has amassed over 150,000 signatures. Another <a href="https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/an-inquest-not-a-public-inquiry-for-the-grenfell-tower-fires">well-subscribed petition</a> has demanded an immediate inquest, reflecting profound distrust in state-initiated inquiries.</p>
<p>It is a distrust rooted in previous investigations. Solicitor for the 2009 Lakanal fire victims, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/grenfell-tower-public-inquiry-is-not-answer-warns-lawyer-7qmxfrk5m">Sophie Khan</a>, has argued an inquest would enable a jury to reach a verdict independent of government influence. Cited as the way forward, in 2016 the jury in the <a href="https://hillsboroughinquests.independent.gov.uk/">second Hillsborough inquest</a> reached its verdict of unlawful killing and 25 damning findings against the police and other key institutions. </p>
<h2>Long road to justice</h2>
<p>Hillsborough, however, demonstrates the shortcomings of inquests and inquiries. Within four months of the 1989 disaster, a public inquiry, chaired by Lord Justice Taylor, concluded that the main cause of the deaths was overcrowding on the stadium’s terraces but the main reason was a police failure in controlling the crowd. Yet, the speed with which his <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/HWP000000180001.html">interim report</a> was delivered significantly inhibited exploration of the historical context, the wider institutional failings, and the appalling treatment of the bereaved and survivors during the immediate aftermath.</p>
<p>Crucially, Taylor failed to reveal that police officers’ statements underwent review and alteration carried out by a South Yorkshire investigation team in close consultation with the force’s solicitors. This process was accepted by Taylor, by the West Midlands Police investigators and by the Home Office. It has since been revealed that the South Yorkshire Ambulance Service <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/report/Section-1/summary/page-13/">adopted a similar process</a>.</p>
<p>In March 1991, the first Hillsborough inquest jury, under assertive direction from the coroner, delivered verdicts of accidental death. Over two decades later, the full extent of the miscarriage of justice was revealed – not by an inquest nor by a public inquiry – but by the Hillsborough Independent Panel’s <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/report/">400-page report</a>, encompassing 153 detailed findings. I headed its research and also advised the bereaved families’ legal teams throughout the second inquest from 2014 to 2016. </p>
<h2>Frustration for families and survivors</h2>
<p>Among the Grenfell families and survivors, the sense of urgency and desperation for their questions to be answered is as obvious as it is painful. Calls for inquests to precede an inquiry are understandable but inappropriate. Inquests have neither the capacity, nor scope to engage necessarily complex questions. For example, it is outside their remit to explore survivors’ experiences and their endurance of the immediate aftermath.</p>
<p>Inquests establish who died, and when and where they died. A fourth duty – to establish how they died – is the most contested terrain at inquests involving deaths in controversial and contested circumstances. Yet inquests cannot attribute named responsibility for the deaths, and witnesses can refuse to answer questions that could suggest liability.</p>
<p>An underlying frustration is that no alternative form of investigation exists. When I stood before the Hillsborough families and survivors to deliver the panel’s report, I anticipated we had established a process that prioritised the best interests of families and survivors. Innovative and independent, a panel with complementary and necessary skills had prepared the ground for new inquests, criminal prosecutions and disciplinary proceedings. It now appears it will remain an exception.</p>
<h2>The way forward</h2>
<p>Prime Minister Theresa May <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/21/victims-advocate-role-created-in-response-to-grenfell-fire">has confirmed</a> that a public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire will proceed. In fast-moving developments following her announcement, it transpires that across England approximately <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/22/flammable-cladding-found-on-other-flats-after-grenfell-fire-says-may">600 high-rise blocks</a> have combustible exterior cladding similar to Grenfell’s. The financial and personal implications for evacuating these blocks and rehousing their residents are unprecedented. It has taken a dreadful tragedy to reveal the extent of such institutionalised neglect and complacency. And the Grenfell inquiry will be deficient unless it addresses, explains and acts on three inter-connected elements.</p>
<p>First is the history of the tower block: from inception and planning as a local authority housing development, to its commission, design, transfers of ownership, subsequent modifications, inspections and so on. The combination of public investment and the chain of private contractual arrangements are central to the “long history” that precedes all disasters. This was the crucial context and record of complex decision-making absent from the rushed public inquiry into Hillsborough. It took the independent panel’s research team, which I led, two years to unpack this complexity.</p>
<p>Second is to establish precisely what happened on the night of the disaster. This must focus on discovering how the fire started and why it spread so fast with such devastating consequences. Clearly, preventative measures – fire barriers, alarms and sprinkler systems – were not present, or were ineffective. Thus, escape and rescue was inhibited with dire consequences. The inquiry should also consider why prophetic warnings of concerned residents allegedly went unheeded.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"874903622777176065"}"></div></p>
<p>Third – consistent with the model devised for the Hillsborough Independent Panel – is a full analysis and evaluation of the systemic failures during the immediate aftermath and days that followed. People lost loved ones, neighbours and all possessions. Yet in these moments of crisis, as the prime minister <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/jun/21/victims-advocate-role-created-in-response-to-grenfell-fire">has admitted</a>, they were failed. As I have stated repeatedly post-Hillsborough, immediate care and support for those traumatised has to be central to any emergency response.</p>
<p>In my experience, the Grenfell inquiry will not have the confidence of the community unless it demonstrates a profound understanding of the context, circumstances and aftermath of the tragedy, engaging directly and meaningfully with families and survivors. At the public inquiry and eventual inquests, as the recent Hillsborough inquests demonstrated, families must be guaranteed state-funded access to full legal representation equivalent to that commissioned by the private and public bodies involved. </p>
<p>Those appointed as advisors to the inquiry must have the experience and expertise to question, contextualise and evaluate evidence on each of the above three elements. The inquiry must present incisive conclusions on causation alongside recommendations that safeguard those living in similar accommodation. Only then, and to the satisfaction of the bereaved and survivors, can the truth be revealed and the public interest served.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/79505/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Phil Scraton receives funding from ESRC and The Leverhulme Trust.
Editorial Board of Statewatch, member of INQUEST.
By-line: Phil Scraton is professor emeritus in the School of Law, Queen’s University Belfast. Author of the much-acclaimed Hillsbrough: The Truth, he headed the research for the Hillsborough Independent Panel and was primary author of its report. He was advisor to the Hillsborough families’ legal teams throughout the inquests 2014-2016. A founder and advisory board member of INQUEST (see: <a href="http://www.inquest.org.uk/media/pr/inquest-statement-on-grenfell-tower-fire">www.inquest.org.uk/media/pr/inquest-statement-on-grenfell-tower-fire</a> )</span></em></p>The investigation into the Hillsborough disaster took a long and twisted path – the government must learn from its mistakes.Phil Scraton, Professor Emeritus in Criminology, Queen's University BelfastLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/729402017-02-20T17:16:42Z2017-02-20T17:16:42ZWhy The Sun newspaper will never shine in Liverpool<p>Almost three decades after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/hillsborough-at-last-the-shameful-truth-is-out-58456">Hillsborough tragedy</a>, Liverpool Football Club has <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-38933817">banned journalists from The Sun newspaper</a> from its stadium and training ground. It is a move that has social resonance well beyond the money saturated realm of the Premier League. And it is a chance to ask why the club demonstrates such an elephantine unwillingness to forget or forgive The Sun’s initial offence – a British national newspaper acting as the propaganda arm for an establishment cover up and a concerted defamation of the innocent dead.</p>
<p>Immediately after the disaster in 1989, the Kop stand at Anfield was transformed into an avalanche of commemorative flowers and football scarves. The media covered this visually striking event, but what they have never managed to convey in almost three decades, is the depth of sentiment that persisted well beyond the lifespan of those flowers. </p>
<p>When the tribute was dismantled, the scarves were sold for charity. To this day, I still own two of them – one from Liverpool, the other from Manchester United. The two club scarves were bought twisted together as a poignant reminder of a solidarity that transcends tribal affinity. Fans from visiting clubs now routinely leave keepsakes when they pay their respects at Liverpool’s permanent Hillsborough memorial.</p>
<p><em>Gemeinschaft</em> is a term used by German sociologist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ferdinand-Tonnies">Ferdinand Tönnies</a> to describe the strong bonds of close-knit communities. Its meaning is in contrast to <em>Gesellschaft</em>, which describes the more formal ties of laws and procedures.
The Hillsborough tragedy showed two different sides of <em>Gemeinschaft</em>. Journalists, politicians, judges and senior police, nominally the functionaries of <em>Gesellschaft</em>, were able to draw upon their mutually reinforcing networks of powerful familiarity to defame the victims and their guileless families. </p>
<p>Liverpool FC’s refusal to forgive The Sun (or as we Liverpudlians refer to it, The S*n) is a visceral reaction. It is the flip side of that title’s trademark targeting of the lowest common denominator attitudes and bigotries of the nation’s working class. In and around Liverpool, The S*n faces a level of resentment that a cut-throat commercial enterprise is unequipped to understand. It comes from a place now seldom seen in a society in which the value of communal longevity has been largely forgotten.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157374/original/image-20170217-10217-dbbhor.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Liverpool shop.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Adrian Quinn</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tabloid <em>modus operandi</em> consists of isolating a story from any meaningful wider context. In this way it can be consumed by those who are too distant to empathise with the subjects of that tale. Liverpool fans broke that chain of commercially-sponsored alienation through a <a href="https://theconversation.com/finally-the-truth-about-hillsborough-but-you-wont-read-it-on-the-front-of-the-sun-58529">decades long boycott of The S*n</a>, sustained by direct knowledge of the context surrounding Hillsborough. The families of the dead experienced what thousands of other tabloid victims have been subjected to over the years. But in the depths of their sorrow, they found the strength of a whole community to draw upon and resist alongside.</p>
<p>In an age of celebrities, inoculated from mundane reality by wealth and media-facilitated narcissism, Liverpool fans shared raw grief with the club’s famous former player Kenny Dalglish. The city’s most instantly recognisable adopted son attended funeral after funeral after funeral. Later, those fans also witnessed with great sadness how he <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2011/apr/15/kenny-dalglish-hillsborough-knighthood">succumbed to the inevitable psychological toll</a> that dedication took. </p>
<h2>The truth hurts</h2>
<p>The truth did eventually pierce the media bubble, but “bubble” belies the strength of the membrane and the dishonourable character of its guardians. In 2012, for example, PR man Max Clifford was one of the self-appointed commentariat whose opinion was sought by the media over the continuing newspaper boycott. Suggesting that Liverpool ought to move on, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-17113382">he commented</a>: “It’s a bit like we won’t speak to Germans any more because we had a war with them a long time ago. Obviously in Liverpool The Sun is a bad name but not anywhere else in the country.” </p>
<p>As recently as January 2016, Kelvin Mackenzie, the editor responsible for the infamous “Truth” headline, was deemed to be a <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/outrage-over-kelvin-mackenzie-appearing-10731833">suitable panellist</a> for the BBC’s flagship current affairs programme Question Time. Boris Johnson, who, in his <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/hillsborough-boris-johnson-apologises-slurs-3334849">infamous Spectator article</a>, sneered at “the deeply unattractive psyche” of Liverpudlians, is now the UK’s foreign secretary.</p>
<p>The S*n merely represents the provisional wing of the establishment’s style rhetorical forces. At the 20th Hillsborough anniversary Anfield memorial, in a rare and vivid instance of truth speaking directly to power, the government also felt the resentment of its weasel words. The Liverpudlian (Everton supporting) secretary of state for culture, media, and sport, Andy Burnham was <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/5160448/Liverpool-fans-turn-on-Andy-Burnham-at-Hillsborough-memorial.html">forced to stop his speech</a> as sporadic heckling soon gave way to the whole stadium chanting “Justice for the 96”. A visibly chastened minister admirably used the experience as a spur to help obtain the official enquiry that finally exonerated the innocent. </p>
<p>The phrase “Justice for the 96”, is well matched by the lyrics to Liverpool’s well known secular hymn, “You’ll Never Walk Alone”. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When you walk through a storm, hold your head up high, and don’t be afraid of the dark </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Singing these words gives voice to the determination of a genuine community who will never walk alone, and will never, ever, allow themselves to be spun by The S*n.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72940/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul A Taylor does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Liverpool FC has banned the newspaper from its matches. It’s a fair result.Paul A Taylor, Senior Lecturer, Communications Theory, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/729272017-02-20T15:22:48Z2017-02-20T15:22:48ZHillsborough: Liverpool FC has got rid of The Sun but it cannot rid The Sun of Liverpool FC<p>A <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/10/liverpool-ban-the-sun-newspaper-over-hillsborough-coverage">total ban</a> has been put on The Sun by Liverpool football club, 28 years after the city started a mass boycott of the newspaper for running a false story about supporters’ behaviour during the Hillsborough tragedy. It means that its sports reporters no longer have access to football games and training grounds. But the tabloid will still find ways of covering Liverpool FC. </p>
<p>The ban came after new inquests into the Hillsborough disaster in 2016 found that all 96 supporters were <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36138337">unlawfully killed</a>. The Sun had already been refused exclusive player and manager interviews for 28 years but following the inquests the Merseyside club also barred the paper from its Anfield stadium and Melwood training ground after being approached by the Total Eclipse of The Sun campaign group and following consultation with Hillsborough victims’ families. </p>
<p>In response, The Sun released a statement which read in part: “The Sun can reassure readers this won’t affect our full football coverage”. The newspaper can make this claim because sports journalists are no longer purely reliant on firsthand information to get their news and can easily locate alternative secondhand, mainly mediated sources in ways that were not possible in 1989. Far from ideal, certainly, but The Sun will see it as better than nothing. Clubs can deny access but they cannot control information flows in 2017.</p>
<p>As it stands, The Sun will still be able to cover Liverpool’s away games from other stadiums. The newspaper can still run live blogs, match reports and quote pieces from home matches because sports journalists will be able to access live TV feeds. The Sun is also a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jul/22/sky-sports-signs-deal-for-near-live-online-premier-league-highlights">co-holder</a> of the Rupert Murdoch-controlled rights to online highlights, shared with The Times and Sky Sports. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=615&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157307/original/image-20170217-10195-1iurynq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=773&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sun boycott.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/36593372@N04/6932997707/in/photolist-byDqFe-6wR7kb-oranrv-9DXzFR-7aX2rT-7aX33a-7b1Q4o-7b1R8o-7aX2iB-nXEi8L-FGnUyN-7b1QQd-7aX2Y4-7aX1Lt-Gcigz8-bWR4fs-7aX1SX-7b1Qvh-Cq7tBQ-HkdYRa-Hke6CX-FgeyoS-HomFvu-ehH58a-ehNMco-b8PkrZ-b8PiN6-6wR2XN-6nc1SB-oHBBof-or8FxB-oHAMCL-da7a7D-b8Pix2-6oiVsm-ehH5nK-ehH4Ca-b8PnyH-79fJH8-6wR6x5-or8ZSo-ehNMCb-6zW99n-6ngaob-8WnvY-6nwVyg-6fnRsx-P9PG-6g9Eo8-eG1tbN">Mick Baker/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As BBC reporter Simon Stone <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-38933817">noted</a>, Sun reporters will be able to watch Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp’s weekly press conferences on the club’s website. Press conferences also tend to be broadcast live or near-live by Sky Sports News so there is nothing stopping an office-based reporter tweeting or writing a story from the TV broadcast.</p>
<p>This mediated coverage can be underpinned and supplemented by copy from news agencies such as the Press Association, whose reporters have access and provide The Sun and other national newspaper sports desks with story feeds on Liverpool. The Sun sports journalists could also still seek exclusive stories on transfer rumours involving Liverpool players from external sources. </p>
<p>The complete ban simply reinforces the commercial damage that was already being wrought on The Sun by a combination of the city boycott and limited access to the club. The newspaper has already lost millions of pounds in sales and advertising revenue over the past 28 years due to the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=_APdCgAAQBAJ&pg=PT252&lpg=PT252&dq=sun+lost+revenue+liverpool+hillsborough&source=bl&ots=KFJkaQNDit&sig=X6ATx4TdO7SiiZFDaYamsK_T9x4&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQkqSE2Z7SAhVpJ8AKHcFHAVM4ChDoAQhMMAw#v=onepage&q=sun%20lost%20revenue%20liverpool%20hillsborough&f=false">circulation black hole of Liverpool</a> and will continue to do so. Also, The Sun’s secondhand coverage of the club and difficulty in obtaining exclusives has put it at a huge competitive disadvantage to its rivals. </p>
<p>The Sun will still be determined to cover Liverpool because of its standing as a big club both nationally and globally. The newspaper has always hoped Liverpool fans outside the city would adopt a softer stance. It will also be aware that its digital platforms have global reach and access to a significant overseas Liverpool fan base. Liverpool FC <a href="http://www.liverpoolfc.com/fans/lfc-official-supporters-clubs">claims</a> that 200 official supporters clubs exist across 50 countries.</p>
<p>But why did it take 28 years for Liverpool FC to enforce a complete ban? David Prentice, head of sport at the local newspaper, the Liverpool Echo, <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/sn-liverpool-took-28-years-12587844">explains</a> that, in 1989, sports journalists had built close and trustworthy relationships with club contacts and were seen as entirely separate from the news desk. But the outcomes of the Hillsborough inquests in Warrington last April demanded more accountability.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=524&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/157312/original/image-20170217-10223-1k18nzd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=658&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The number of people that lost their lives as a result of Hillsborough.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/motti82/3444478511/in/photolist-6fnRsx-6nwVyg-6g9Eo8-P9PG-eG1tbN-bWR4fs-FNodaT-6hJJUK-a1adN-ngTAcj-HkdYRa-Hke6CX-HomFvu-GvRSeD-Hke1oP-Hke2aZ-HkdZ5X-Hke3iv-HomxdC-GvRTBZ-HrjD7X-HhR7Gs-HrjVfi-HhRbzs-H23t39-HhR9LC-HomyfY-H23qFq-H23qCj-GvRUax-HomxAG-GvRTXi-HhR7SC-GvKynj-HkdZvB-HhR6G1-HhR6gm-HhR68A-GvKBYs-Hke6NB-H23snb-GvKA7G-Homztu-Homxo7-HomwqL-Hke1Sz-HhR7BN-HhR61w-GvRSir-HrjJme">Joe Mott/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It’s also worth adding that it’s now a more straightforward decision for football clubs to ban newspapers. Top flight clubs in 1989 would have seen sports journalists as key intermediaries between them and supporters - not any more. National newspapers used to be relied on for publicity but declining print circulations have undermined their value to clubs. The Sun today has a newspaper circulation of 1.6m compared to more than 4m at the time of the Hillsborough disaster.</p>
<p>Also, the traditional journalist-source relationship has been disrupted by the fact that newspaper organisations are now a form of competition to clubs. The Sun’s website may pull in <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/online-abcs-telegraph-decision-to-charge-for-premium-content-sees-website-overtaken-by-fast-growing-sun/">3.5m daily average unique browsers</a> but Liverpool FC has its own social media account, website and TV channel. It wants to publish and broadcast its own exclusive interviews with players and managers directly to fans. Plus, the club can control its message rather than run the risk of journalists adding spin or putting out counter messages. </p>
<p>Newspaper sports journalists are kept much more at arm’s length from sources in an age of sanitised, carefully controlled mixed zones, press conferences and briefings. Source relations are no longer defined by cultivating contacts and building relationships and trust, but by economic arrangements such as the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31379128">£5 billion combined domestic TV rights deal</a> between the Premier League and Sky Sports and BT Sport. Print journalists do not have the same closeness to professional sporting world that they enjoyed in 1989.</p>
<p>Liverpool FC has finally got rid of The Sun - but, in a 2017 media landscape, it cannot rid The Sun of Liverpool FC.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/72927/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon McEnnis worked as a sports journalist for The Sun between 2000 and 2009 but is no longer in employment with the newspaper </span></em></p>Liverpool FC has imposed a complete ban on The Sun but it cannot prevent the tabloid newspaper from continuing to cover the club.Simon McEnnis, Senior Lecturer in Sports Media, University of BrightonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/604702016-06-08T11:12:21Z2016-06-08T11:12:21ZWar on the picket line: how the British press made a battle out of the miners’ strike<p>The recent <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-inquests-jury-says-96-victims-were-unlawfully-killed">Hillsborough verdict</a> highlighted the way the British press <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2014/apr/29/hillsborough-disaster-press-coverage-odious-sisters">demonised Liverpool football fans</a> while justifying the actions of South Yorkshire police in their coverage of the disaster. </p>
<p>In light of this, calls have been made for a similar Hillsborough style public inquiry <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2016/may/04/police-fahy-inquiry-1980s-miners-strike-scargill-orgreave-thatcher-hillsborough">into the policing of the British miners’ strike</a> between 1984-5, with newspapers facing fresh allegations that the coverage of the strike amounted to a “<a href="http://www.londonfreelance.org/fl/0905shaf.html?i=flolder&d=2009_05">propaganda assault on the miners</a>”. </p>
<p>The miners’ strike started when the Conservative government, led by Margaret Thatcher, announced the closure of Cortonwood Colliery in Yorkshire. This was to be the first of 20 pit closures and, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25549596">with many more believed to be in the planning</a>, it led to the longest running industrial action in Britain since the 1926 General Strike.</p>
<p>My <a href="https://hartcda.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/metaphor-and-intertextuality-in-media-framings-of-the-1984-85-british-miners-strike.pdf">recent research</a>, which involved analysis of both news language and press photographs of the time, shows that this year-long strike was portrayed by newspapers – on all sides – as a metaphorical war between the government and the National Union of Mineworkers.</p>
<p>It shows how the media used “war framing” words, phrases and photographs while reporting the strike – often drawing on iconic texts and images associated with World War I. This framing presented the miners as “the enemy”, while at the same time, it justified the actions of the government and the police as necessary and even noble. </p>
<p>This “war framing” is likely to have had a significant impact on the course and eventual outcome of the strike as research has shown that <a href="http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0016782">metaphors help to shape public opinion</a>. The war framing even worked its way up into government policy-making. </p>
<h2>Waging war</h2>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=735&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125500/original/image-20160607-15021-7xvc8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=924&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Front page of The Sun, March 1984.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The “war metaphor” was established from the very beginning of the strike with the headline in The Sun Newspaper on 13 March 1984: “Pit war: Violence erupts on the picket line as miner fights miner”. A few days later, in reference to violence at Ollerton colliery, the Express described “rampaging armies of pickets at the besieged Nottinghamshire pit”.</p>
<p>Later, The Sun went on to describe “an army of 8,000 police at battle stations in the bloody pit war”. Police officers and picketing miners were seen as soldiers on opposite sides of the “war”. Arthur Scargill – the then president of the National Union of Mineworkers – was described as an “army general” in the Express and a “dictator” in The Sun.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=394&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125501/original/image-20160607-15061-lcnqzu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police on horses at the miners’ strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>News photographs painted a similar picture, drawing subtle analogies with World War I in particular. <a href="http://bit.ly/1X8nx0P">Images of wooden stakes at Orgreave</a>, South Yorkshire, resembled the barbed wire barricades associated with German defences in the Battle of the Somme. Pictures of police on horseback were reminiscent of mounted warfare typically associated with cavalry charges in World War I.</p>
<p>Even peaceful moments that were captured on camera, such as a football match played between police and miners at Bilsthorne colliery in Nottinghamshire, stuck to the war narrative – with the image bringing to mind the celebrated 1914 Christmas Day football match played between German and allied forces. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125503/original/image-20160607-15045-1os44p1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Football played in ‘No mans land’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This was reinforced in the caption that accompanied the photograph which described a football match “played on no-mans land during a break from picketing”.</p>
<p>At the end of the strike, the front cover of The Sun showed a picture of a blooded police officer accompanied by the headline “Lest we Forget”. This evocative phrase is associated with the Ode of Remembrance where it is added as a final line to the fourth stanza of Laurence Binyon’s poem <a href="https://theconversation.com/lest-we-forget-binyons-ode-of-remembrance-13642">For the Fallen</a>, written in 1914 in honour of British soldiers who had already lost their lives in World War I. It serves to compare the efforts of police officers during the strike with the sacrifice of British soldiers during the Great War. </p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/125502/original/image-20160607-15021-1ppp0yr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Headline from The Sun at the end of the miner’s strike.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The war metaphor eventually became part of government policy. This can be seen in <a href="http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/news/901.htm">Cabinet documents</a> recently released under the 30-year rule. Thatcher was encouraged by her policy unit to pursue “a war of attrition” with the miners.</p>
<h2>A war of words</h2>
<p>With the miners’ strike thought of in terms of a war, it helped to define the miners as “the enemy”, who must be “defeated”. This meant that any chance of compromise or resolution in the strike was very much diminished from the beginning.</p>
<p>The “war metaphor” justifies the violent actions of the police “on the frontline” at Orgreave. Analogies with World War I in particular exploit collective emotions associated with key historical moments and arouse feelings of both national pride and prejudice. </p>
<p>Constructing the miners’ strike as a war was one way in which a powerful media demonised miners – just as they did with football fans at Hillsborough – while at the same time justifying police practices. It also helped pave the way for the government’s hard line policy toward the miners. Had the media followed an alternative strategy in linguistic and visual representations of the strike, it may well have taken a different, and less violent course.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/60470/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Hart does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The truth is out on how the media’s reporting of the Hillsborough disaster impacted the public perception of the tragedy, but could the same be said for the British miners’ strike?Christopher Hart, Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/589662016-05-17T09:27:28Z2016-05-17T09:27:28ZLegal aid cuts prevent the police from being held accountable for their actions<p>Who holds the police to account for their actions? Is it just institutions, such as the Independent Police Complaints Commission, the elected police and crime commissioners, and the forces’ disciplinary procedures? Something that’s often forgotten is the essential role played by lawyers as they try to obtain justice for the individuals who have been wronged by the police. </p>
<p>From those falsely imprisoned or families whose loved ones have died in custody to those who have been spied upon or had evidence fabricated for use against them, there are many that seek redress. Many don’t even seek compensation, just an admission of wrongdoing from the police and an apology. But getting to that point through the courts is an expensive business. Notwithstanding its obvious importance to the individuals involved and society at large, getting justice in cases where the police are at fault is something that successive governments have made harder.</p>
<p>As part of his response to home secretary Theresa May’s statement to the House of Commons on the Hillsborough Inquests, Labour shadow Andy Burnham stated:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>At many inquests today there is often a mismatch between the legal representation of public bodies and those of the bereaved. Why should the authorities be able to spend public money like water to protect themselves when families have no such help? So will the government consider further reforms to the coronial system, including <a href="http://goo.gl/Y2pKnA">giving the bereaved at least equal legal funding as public bodies?</a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Burnham is exactly right. To walk into court with one junior lawyer, paid either at legal aid rates, or on a no-win-no-fee basis, or simply acting pro bono, only to find the agents of the state represented by top barristers is a galling experience. The recent Hillsborough Inquests are unusual in this respect as they were properly state funded, but the families of the 96 fans that died had this precise experience during the original inquests in 1990.</p>
<p>The experience of others at far shorter, less complex inquests is often similarly difficult. Trying to meet the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/454837/legal-aid-chancellor-inquests.pdf">exacting means-test and seriousness requirements</a> of the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) leads to delay and distress. But the government has an obligation to allow families whose loved ones may have died at the hands of the state to be involved in the investigation into what went wrong.</p>
<p>This struggle to acquire funding so as to be able to hold the police to account is not restricted to coroner’s inquests. Elsewhere in civil proceedings or judicial reviews of police decisions, the struggle for funding is the same. The <a href="http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2012/10/contents/enacted">Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012</a> (Laspo) reduced the scope of what type of case can attract legal aid. If the claim does qualify, the potential claimant must meet strict criteria to be funded. LAA guidance on funding in police actions requires that there be at least a 50% chance of success. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/122460/original/image-20160513-10663-1ewubby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ministry of Justice statistics show the effect of cuts to legal aid.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/438013/legal-aid-statistics-bulletin-jan-to-mar-2015.pdf">Ministry of Justice</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By contrast, senior lawyers representing the government report that they have experience <a href="https://legalaidchanges.wordpress.com/2013/06/06/46/">of being instructed</a> “to defend government decisions despite advising that the prospects of doing so are considerably below 50%”. There is a clear double standard here, with no rules to prevent the state from squandering public money to defend its own decisions or actions.</p>
<p>Mounting a legal challenge by way of civil action or judicial review is expensive. Defending them is also expensive – almost certainly more expensive than running a human rights compliant constabulary in the first place. If a victim of police misconduct loses their case, they become liable for the constabulary’s legal costs. If you only stand to win a small amount – actions against the police win on average? below £20,000, often much less – many will take the attitude that it’s not worth risking their home to prove in court that they were wronged. Previously, it was possible to obtain so-called “after the event insurance” to support your claim, but this is now all but impossible.</p>
<p>This leaves many potential claimants without a viable mechanism to fund a claim against the police. The <a href="http://www.palg.org.uk">Police Action Lawyers Group</a>, an affiliation of lawyers who represent individuals acting against the police, stated in their <a href="http://www.palg.org.uk/documents/">recent submission</a> to the Fabian Society’s <a href="http://www.fabians.org.uk/access-to-justice-the-bach-commission/">Bach Commission on Access to Justice</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>As a result of reforms which made after the event insurance premiums irrecoverable from defendants, for most of those clients [who are ineligible for legal aid due to Laspo] there is currently no viable funding model.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The police will therefore go untroubled by claims in the civil courts.</p>
<p>In the past, criminal barristers have gone so far as to <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-25597617">stage walk-outs against legal aid cuts</a>, but this is not a campaigning strategy available to those acting against the police. If they were to walk out the police can happily continue its misconduct safe in the knowledge that nobody would issue claims against them nor represent families who wish to ask difficult questions at inquests.</p>
<p>And ultimately that would suit the police just fine. Cuts in legal aid are not really about tackling the public spending deficit, they are a key mechanism in reducing the possibility to hold the police and state to account.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58966/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Mehigan is lecturer in criminology at the Open University and a barrister at Garden Court Chambers. He represented families at the Hillsborough Inquests and is a member of the Police Action Lawyers Group.</span></em></p>The cost of justice puts victims at a disadvantage.James Mehigan, Lecturer in Criminology, The Open UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/585302016-04-27T16:00:44Z2016-04-27T16:00:44ZHillsborough inquest rights the wrongs, but now attitudes towards fans must change<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120382/original/image-20160427-30960-owps88.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Modern standing terraces are safer than all-seater stadiums.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rail_seats_in_Klagenfurt,_Austria.JPG">Jon Darch</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Hillsborough disaster of April 1989 shook British football to its core, but such was the terrible state of Britain’s decrepit, overcrowded, poorly policed terraces that many fans had long predicted such a disaster would unfold.</p>
<p>But even after the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32388297">fire at Bradford City’s ground in 1985</a>, whenever such fears were raised they were given short shrift. Prior to the semi-final at which 96 of his club’s fans died, Liverpool’s own chief executive, Peter Robinson, contacted the Football Association asking them <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/docs/HOM000001380001.pdf">not to locate the Liverpool supporters in the much smaller Leppings Lane End </a>. If he was ignored, what chance did ordinary fans have in articulating their concerns? </p>
<p>The authorities were animated more by the spectre of hooliganism – and this loomed large in attitudes towards football fans. Supporters were not to be listened to but to be controlled. The sins of the few meant that football fans were collectively caged like animals in creaking, crumbling pens surrounded by perimeter fencing.</p>
<p>For those charged with managing games, law and order were far more important than the welfare of supporters. Even in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster, the narrative of hooliganism and “<a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/report/Section-1/summary/page-14/">drunk, ticketless fans</a>” provided the police with a convenient if fraudulent alibi to cover up their own incompetence and wilful neglect of human life. It was a deceitful lie repeated with glee by <a href="https://theconversation.com/finally-the-truth-about-hillsborough-but-you-wont-read-it-on-the-front-of-the-sun-58529">certain parts of the tabloid media</a>.</p>
<p>The public inquiry into Hillsborough led to the publication of the <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/docs/HOM000028060001.pdf">Taylor Report</a> in 1990. Although this went some way towards clearing the Liverpool supporters of blame, pressure applied by the then prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, saw the final version shorn of any criticism of the police. Taylor instead focused upon Britain’s decaying terraces, ordering that they be modernised and transformed into all-seater stadiums, and for the 27 years that the truth remained buried, the authorities believed that the Taylor Report contained all the lessons that needed to be learnt.</p>
<p>Now, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-merseyside-35401436">14 landmark verdicts delivered at the Hillsborough inquest</a> – including one declaring the 96 deaths unlawful killings and another exonerating the behaviour of the Liverpool fans – not only vindicate the families’ struggle for justice but also reveal the limitations of Lord Taylor’s original inquiry. Taylor was right, of course, to absolve the Liverpool fans of any blame and he was right to criticise those who sought to pin culpability for the disaster upon anyone other than those responsible for the fans’ safety. But Taylor stopped short of properly holding to account those who had neglected their public and legal duty of care. By emphasising the need for all-seater stadiums, Taylor’s recommendations unwittingly supported the narrative that the fans were to blame.</p>
<h2>Returning to the Taylor report</h2>
<p>Football has undergone a <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-long-haul-to-implement-taylor-report-1087369.html">radical, much-needed transformation in the decades since Hillsborough</a>. Futuristic, space-aged stadiums have replaced the pre-war relics that existed at the time of the disaster, providing fans with comfort, albeit for a considerably higher price. Yet supporters are still <a href="http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/watching-football-is-not-a-crime/">frequently subject to draconian measures</a> designed to curb and control their movements and behaviour – measures that stem from the same attitudes that the inquests found had been partly responsible for failures before, during and after the disaster.</p>
<p>Now is the time to challenge these deep-seated attitudes – most of all the issue of standing terraces and drinking alcohol in football grounds. So far football authorities, in England at least, have been taciturn over the introduction of “safe standing” areas. Rejected principally <a href="http://old.culture.gov.uk/news/hot_topics/9608.aspx">out of respect for those who died</a>, modern safe standing does not mean a return to the dark days of the huge, crumbling terraces and the lethal perimeter fences that penned supporters in like cattle. It involves a safety barrier on every row and rail seats that can be bolted upright to allow spectators to stand safely, without the threat of crushing and overcrowding. </p>
<p>Where this technology <a href="http://www.fsf.org.uk/campaigns/safe-standing/what-does-safe-standing-look-like/">has been introduced in Germany, Sweden and Austria</a>, it has been shown to be a safer alternative to the all-seater stadiums recommended by Lord Taylor and now found throughout the UK. Perversely, given the lessons of Hillsborough, this reticence to engage in constructive dialogue with fans over the issue suggests a continued unwillingness to prioritise crowd safety over crowd control.</p>
<p>The same attitude is evident in the efforts to rid football of alcohol. The use of “dry trains” where the drinking of alcohol is forbidden between certain stations, and the continued <a href="http://www.safetyatsportsgrounds.org.uk/advice/faqs/sporting-events-act-1985">ban on the consumption of alcohol “within sight of the pitch” on match days</a> implicitly fuels the myth that drink was a contributory factor at Hillsborough. There is little evidence to suggest football’s illogical approach to alcohol actually has any effect upon violence. Relaxing the regulations concerning drinking during matches, as at other sporting events, would address the discrimination that football fans continue to face and, crucially will help erase the pernicious lie that was spun following Hillsborough. </p>
<p>These new verdicts finally deliver what the families and survivors of Britain’s worst sporting disaster always knew: that their loved ones were unlawfully killed, that the behaviour of those who survived was beyond reproach and that a cover-up ensued to protect those who had failed in their duty of care. Britain and the rest of football owes them a debt of gratitude for their tireless campaign. </p>
<p>But their challenge to the attitudes of those who govern the game and society must be taken further, to change the narrative that hindered the families’ struggle for the truth – only that will deliver a lasting justice for the 96.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58530/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Webber does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Safe standing stadiums and less invasive crowd control would be the final step to overturn Hillsborough’s wrongful legacy on British football.David Webber, Teaching Fellow, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/585292016-04-27T13:06:39Z2016-04-27T13:06:39ZFinally, the truth about Hillsborough (but you won’t read it on the front of The Sun)<p>As Jared Ficklin <a href="https://theconversation.com/hillsborough-at-last-the-shameful-truth-is-out-58456">wrote here</a>, the verdicts returned at the inquest into the Hillsborough disaster of 1989 completely vindicate the 27-year campaign for justice resolutely undertaken by the families of the 96 who died.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36138337">The verdicts</a>, which will surely have far-reaching consequences for the South Yorkshire police, found that those who died were unlawfully killed and that a series of failures by the police and ambulance services contributed to the tragedy. The jury also unanimously agreed that the behaviour of Liverpool supporters did not contribute to the horrific events. After the decisions were made public, the <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/david-cameron-hillsborough-verdicts-official-11246715">prime minister, David Cameron</a> was moved to say:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>All families and survivors now have official confirmation of what they always knew was the case, that the Liverpool fans were utterly blameless in the disaster that unfolded at Hillsborough.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Outside the court, <a href="https://inews.co.uk/essentials/news/uk/hillsborough-disaster-inquest-rules-96-victims-unlawfully-killed/">Margaret Aspinall</a>, whose 18-year-old son James died in the disaster, said: “Let’s be honest about this – people were against us. We had the media against us, as well as the establishment.”</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"725211087969222657"}"></div></p>
<p>And, when we consider Mrs Aspinall’s sentiments concerning the media and the fact that both The Sun and The Times, in isolation, originally <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/27/sun-times-front-pages-ignore-hillsborough-verdict?CMP=twt_gu">chose not to cover</a> the verdicts on their front pages the following morning it’s impossible not to think about how the tragedy was <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/repository/docs/PRE000000340001.pdf">originally reported</a> by The Sun.</p>
<p>On April 19, four days after the disaster occurred, The Sun printed its “THE TRUTH” edition, where its front page alleged that Liverpool fans had stolen from the bodies of the victims, urinated on “brave cops” and, in a particularly appalling piece of fantasy which I quote in full, alleged that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In one shameful episode, a gang of Liverpool fans noticed the blouse of a girl trampled to death in the crush had risen above her breasts. As a policeman struggled in vain to revive her they jeered: “Throw her up here and we will **** her.”</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120351/original/image-20160427-30950-10ckm6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sun’s front page following Hillsborough.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In their book about the Sun, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stick-Up-Your-Punter-Newspaper/dp/0571299709">Peter Chippendale and Chris Horrie</a> describe the atmosphere inside The Sun’s newsroom in the Hillsborough era under the editorship of Kelvin Mackenzie. </p>
<p>It was a place, they write, of terror – where the editor’s personality dominated to such an extent that even though there were grave misgivings about the accounts of what happened at Hillsborough (none of the allegations, of course, were attributable) journalists felt intimidated and powerless to object to the terrible smears. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-19507065">Harry Arnold</a>, the reporter whose by-line appeared next to the story along with John Askill, told the BBC in 2012 that when he saw the article ready for print he was “aghast”. He said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fact is reporters don’t argue with an editor. And in particular, you don’t argue with an editor like Kelvin Mackenzie.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It’s worth pointing out, though, that various other newspapers were culpable in peddling the narrative of supporter misbehaviour and criminality. The Daily Express, for example, on April 18 ran with the front page headline, POLICE ACCUSE DRUNKEN FANS. Football Fanzine <a href="http://www.exacteditions.com/read/wsc/june-1989-48242/4/3/%20.">When Saturday Comes</a> did a round-up of some of the headlines including the Sunday People’s: BODIES SPIKED AS CRAZED MOB FLEE.</p>
<h2>Anger on Merseyside</h2>
<p>Such reports must be seen in their political and social context. The subject of football hooliganism had great currency in the late 1980s and, as <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/14616700050081786">Jemphrey and Beddington </a> point out, Liverpool as a city had been subject to continual negative imagery and bad press from the national newspapers in general. Hooliganism as a cause of the tragedy was the accepted “wisdom” in the aftermath of events – and <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/report/main-section/part-2/chapter-12/page-7/index.html">not just</a> in the tabloid press.</p>
<p>Yet it is The Sun that remains most closely associated with the lies and disinformation perpetuated around the Hillsborough tragedy. There are a number of reasons for this. It’s because of the apparent certainty of the THE TRUTH headline and the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10154177221679540&set=gm.10154060738061772&type=3&theater">belated apologies</a>; it’s because of the habitual cockiness of <a href="http://www.themediablog.co.uk/the-media-blog/2012/09/kelvin-mackenzies-latest-hillsborough-insult.html">Mackenzie</a> and his return as a Sun columnist. It may even be, as Mackenzie himself maintains, because The Sun <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2012/sep/27/kelvin-mackenzie-hillsborough-disaster">was so pro-Thatcher</a> – and the city in general was so vehemently opposed to a variety of Tory policies.</p>
<p>But it is little wonder, reading once again The Sun’s accumulated coverage of the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, that the anger on Merseyside felt toward the paper since 1989, despite the seemingly grudging and <a href="http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4535743/23-years-after-Hillsborough-the-real-truth.html">belated apologies</a>, has hardly subsided. After the verdicts were announced, former Liverpool players called for the <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hillsborough-disaster-inquest-the-sun-kelvin-mackenzie-trevor-kavanagh_uk_571f8103e4b06bf544e0c423">closure of the paper</a> – and at the post-verdict press conference it became clear that Sun journalists were <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/hillsborough-inquest-verdict-the-sun-kelvin-mackenzie_uk_571f4311e4b06bf544e0a7fa">not welcome</a> as they were asked to leave “<a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/hillsborough-verdict-the-sun-and-the-times-criticised-for-leaving-inquest-verdict-off-front-page-a7002806.html">quietly by the back door</a>”. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/120359/original/image-20160427-30946-4jrgrh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sun journalists need not apply.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But what must not be forgotten or side-lined is the fact that, as <a href="http://www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/12872#.VyB7wVUrKUk">Mick Hume</a> wrote in Spiked in 2012, The Sun (and the other papers, for that matter) did not simply make up the slanderous and despicable stories they ran. They were wilfully fed false stories by the establishment and by police officers who have subsequently <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/how-the-suns-truth-about-hillsborough-unravelled">admitted their guilt</a>. </p>
<p>In truth, it’s not only the Sun but also other major newspapers who bear collective responsibility for failing in their duty to adequately investigate the terrible allegations before printing. But it’s the actions of the Sun, in it’s misplaced confidence and brazenness, which partially fuelled the campaign for justice which lasted 27 years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
All UK tabloids, but particularly The Sun, have a lot to answer for with their disgraceful reporting.John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/584562016-04-26T17:09:53Z2016-04-26T17:09:53ZHillsborough: at last, the shameful truth is out<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/120245/original/image-20160426-1335-1p75hcn.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">They'll never walk alone.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hillsborough_anniversary.JPG">Linksfuss</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Following two years of harrowing evidence, the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36138337">verdicts</a> in the <a href="https://hillsboroughinquests.independent.gov.uk/">inquest into the Hillsborough disaster</a> in 1989 are a complete vindication of the 27-year campaign for justice for the 96 victims and their families. It is difficult to imagine the fortitude required to continue their fight for justice against the arrayed institutional might of the police, government and even sections of the media for so long.</p>
<p>But this fight for the truth did not take almost three decades, <a href="http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/cost-of-hillsborough-inquests-passes-14-million-1-7563289">millions of pounds</a>, and the longest court hearing in UK history because of its complexity. It was because within hours, the South Yorkshire police organised a conspiracy to protect themselves by defaming the dead and injured. </p>
<p>It is now clear that the police did not <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/apr/26/hillsborough-disaster-deadly-mistakes-and-lies-that-lasted-decades">take blood from children to run alcohol tests or send a photographer to find empty beer cans</a> because they wanted to understand what had really happened. It was simply to find any prop that could support the false narrative that the fans were drunk and abusive and were somehow responsible for their own deaths, and that the police had done their best under the circumstances. </p>
<p>We now know, from evidence heard at the inquest and admissions of senior police officers themselves, that this was so far from reality that the police had to collude to invent evidence. But even that wasn’t enough to hide the truth. There were thousands of fans there that day who knew what really happened – even in an age before everyone carried a phone with a camera, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-22566230">images existed that didn’t tally with the police’s claims</a>.</p>
<p>But at the time the police had the most powerful allies there were: South Yorkshire police had been instrumental in breaking the miners’ strikes in 1984-1985, during which then prime minister Margaret Thatcher deployed them like her <a href="http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/thatcher-miners-official-papers-confirm-strikers-worst-suspicions/265">army in the north of England</a>. The force also had form for blaming victims: we now know that <a href="https://www.ipcc.gov.uk/sites/default/files/Documents/investigation_commissioner_reports/Ogreave_Decision_12-06-2015.pdf">South Yorkshire police had committed perjury</a> during failed prosecutions of miners following the battle between police and strikers at Orgreave in 1984, and that senior officers were well aware of it and said nothing.</p>
<p>In 1989, the police needed support for their cover-up, and the Conservative government was happy to help. Thatcher herself toured the ground the morning after the disaster, and was aware that privately there were serious questions about the police propaganda, but it didn’t stop her government from backing the police. Her press secretary, Bernard Ingham, relied upon what he was told about the disaster by the police and blamed “tanked-up yobs” for the deaths. <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/bernard-ingham-still-refuses-say-11244412">“Liverpool,” he later said, “should shut up about Hillsborough.”</a></p>
<p>With the government onside, the police needed another ally, and they found it in The Sun. The paper’s infamous headline “The Truth” probably caused more pain and anger in Liverpool than the government’s collusion, where thousands of residents knew the truth because they had <a href="http://s.telegraph.co.uk/graphics/projects/Hillsborough-inconvenient-witness/index.html">seen it with their own eyes</a>. In 1996, Ingham advised Liverpool to ignore <a href="http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/bernard-ingham-still-refuses-say-11244412">“ambulance-chasing lawyers” and that “least said, soonest mended for Liverpool”.</a> But fortunately for the victims, and for the cause of justice, the families ignored that advice. Anne Williams, whose son Kevin was killed in the disaster aged just 15, literally fought for the rest of her life, until she <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/apr/18/hillsborough-campaigner-anne-williams-dies1">died of cancer in 2013</a>. Her work was instrumental in the establishment of the <a href="http://hillsborough.independent.gov.uk/">Hillsborough Independent Panel</a>, chaired by the Bishop of Liverpool. The panel’s report led to the previous accidental death verdicts being quashed in the High Court in 2012, paving the way for today’s verdicts.</p>
<p>Today, after so long, the only issue worthy of consideration is that the families have finally received a verdict that can be called justice. But even in these proceedings the police refused to be accountable, or even decent. When the then Lord Chief Justice Igor Judge quashed the previous inquests, he said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Notwithstanding its falsity, the tendency to blame the fans was disappointingly tenacious and lingered for many years … [in fact] each one was a helpless victim of those terrible events.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But over almost two years of hearings, the police forced the families to endure a final performance of the cover-up. Lawyers for both the South Yorkshire Police and the Police Federation argued forcefully that the fans were drunk, non-compliant and contributed to their own deaths. </p>
<p>In the end, the inquest has found that every one of the 96 were victims of unlawful killing, opening up the possibility of criminal prosecutions against the police and individual officers. The police could have spared the families and their own reputations by admitting their conspiracy and finally renouncing the shameful claim that the dead were anything but victims. That, decades on, the police and the Federation are still unable to accept their mistakes makes it all too clear that these verdicts do not simply record historical failures of police accountability, but are evidence that it is still a problem today.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/58456/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jared Ficklin is affiliated with the Liverpool Law Clinic at the School of Law and Social Justice, University of Liverpool, and Garden Court North Chambers in Manchester. Students from the Liverpool Law Clinic took part in evidence preparation for the Hillsborough inquests. </span></em></p>Two inquests, millions of pounds, 27 years, 96 dead, one verdict: that police failures led to the 1989 Hillsborough disaster, and police lies tried to cover it up.Jared Ficklin, Lecturer in Law, Liverpool Law Clinic, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/535292016-01-22T14:57:07Z2016-01-22T14:57:07ZWhy proposed reforms do little to fix problem with compensation for psychological trauma<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/108997/original/image-20160122-413-18l3zr3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Second reading of Private Member's Bill</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=ijpmdk6h52oqa180kve&search_tracking_id=MB-yW4NDlRxz6ni40YDnnQ&searchterm=houses%20of%20parliament%20london&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=112369760">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Although mental illnesses can be every bit as devastating as physical injuries, for a long time the courts in England have significantly restricted who can claim compensation for negligently inflicted psychiatric harm. It’s harder to get compensation for, say, post-traumatic stress disorder than it is for a physical injury such as a broken leg.</p>
<p>A Private Member’s bill introduced by the MP for Middlesbrough, <a href="http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/andy-mcdonald/4269">Andy McDonald</a>, aims to relax these rules. <a href="http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2015-16/negligenceanddamages.html">The Negligence and Damages bill 2015-16</a> will have its second reading in the House of Commons on January 22. It could radically transform English negligence law.</p>
<h2>Hillsborough legacy</h2>
<p>The current rules were established after the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. In the <a href="http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/uk/cases/UKHL/1991/5.html&query=alcock+and+v+and+chief+and+constable+and+of+and+south+and+yorkshire&method=boolean">Alcock case</a>, 16 relatives of Hillsborough victims sued South Yorkshire Police when they developed psychiatric illnesses after witnessing the disaster. The House of Lords dismissed their claims. </p>
<p>English courts only award damages to people who have suffered psychiatric injuries after witnessing shocking events when three conditions are met. </p>
<p>First, they must share “close ties of love and affection” with the victim of the defendant’s negligence. Spousal and parent-child relationships will automatically satisfy this condition. All others must be proved to have close ties. Second, the claimant must have been in “close proximity” to the scene of the accident or its immediate aftermath. Third, the claimant’s psychiatric injury must result from a “sudden shock”. </p>
<p>The law in this area is controversial due to the arbitrary nature of the Alcock rules. The 2015-16 bill is the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/228959/0525.pdf">latest attempt to implement reform of this area of the law</a>.</p>
<h2>The Negligence and Damages bill</h2>
<p>The McDonald bill would presume that relationships between siblings; grandparents and grandchildren; aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews; cousins; friends and colleagues all entail close ties of love and affection. It would also abolish the “close proximity” and “sudden shock” requirements. These reforms would remove many of the obstacles which prevent people with psychiatric injuries recovering damages.</p>
<p>If the bill’s provisions had been in force at the time of the Hillsborough disaster, it is likely that many of the Alcock claimants would have won damages. Set against the backdrop of the <a href="http://hillsboroughinquests.independent.gov.uk/">Hillsborough inquests</a> and the ongoing justice campaign, the 2015-16 bill seems both timely and important.</p>
<p>But it’s doubtful that these reforms will improve the law. The presumption that collegiate relationships are based on close ties of love and affection is likely to raise eyebrows. Relationships between colleagues typically develop in professional contexts and are not necessarily underpinned by “love and affection”. Also, two people can be “colleagues” because they work for the same company or institution but they may never have met. </p>
<p>The bill’s presumption about friendships could also be contentious. Although there’s no doubt that some friendships are underpinned by genuine affection, the definition of friendship is elastic. For example, Facebook “friendships” can be rather superficial and are often based on tenuous connections. The idea that these artificial friendships have “close ties” defies logic. Against this backdrop, a requirement that friends and colleagues prove the strength of their relationships seems rather sensible.</p>
<p>Imagine that Poppleton University carelessly caused an explosion in its chemistry department. Tom, a chemistry lecturer, was fatally injured. Dick, a passer-by, saw the blast and tried in vain to save Tom’s life. Harry, a lecturer in the English department who’d never met Tom, learnt about the incident the next day via email. If both Dick and Harry suffered psychiatric injury as a result of Poppleton’s carelessness, the law, if this Bill is enacted, would look more favourably upon Harry’s claim due to his collegiate relationship with Tom. This is despite the fact that Dick, who witnessed the explosion and attempted to save Tom’s life, arguably has a stronger moral case for damages than Harry. This can hardly be described as a coherent result.</p>
<p>Reform of the law in this area is <a href="https://www.apil.org.uk/press-release/nearly-25-years-after-hillsborough">long overdue</a>, but it seems that the 2015-16 bill risks making the rules even more illogical and unfair than they already are. It’s hard to avoid the conclusion that major aspects of this bill will need to be rethought before it reaches the statute books.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53529/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The current law on claiming for psychiatric injury needs to revisiting, but a new proposal is not the answer.John Fanning, Lecturer in Law, University of LiverpoolCraig Purshouse, Lecturer in Law, University of LiverpoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.