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'All the newspapers carried the same story'
'All the newspapers carried the same story'
Other papers published slurs about Hillsborough, so why, asks Graham Dudman, will Merseyside not forgive the Sun
Monday February 14, 2005
The Guardian
It was the autumn of 2004. Phil Hammond, chairman of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, was sitting next to Jeremy Vine in John Lennon's childhood home. On the floor was a pile of papers, including the Sun's "The truth" edition about the Hillsborough stadium disaster in which 96 Liverpool football fans lost their lives.
We were taking part in a Radio 2 programme about Liverpool and Vine had asked about Fleet Street's coverage after the disaster.
These were the other front page headlines from Wednesday April 19, 1989.
Daily Star: Dead fans robbed by drunk thugs; Daily Express: Police accuse drunken fans; the Times: Claims of drunkenness and hooliganism at Hillsborough; Daily Telegraph: Heavy drinking among fans who beseiged ground.
"All the papers carried the same [story]," said Hammond. "There were some worse than the Sun."
Hammond was taking the unprecedented step of acknowledging that we weren't solely to blame. But instead of asking Hammond why he thought papers whose coverage was worse than the Sun's hadn't been boycotted on Merseyside for 15 years, Vine changed the subject and asked me about the Bonkers Bruno headline. After huge efforts to get us in the same room for what Vine told listeners was a "historic" radio moment, it seemed an odd decision.
When the Sun printed a full page unreserved apology three months earlier, acknowledging the hurt that had been caused by our original story, it was big news - the local papers, who benefited commercially from the Sun's drop in circulation, weighed in all guns blazing. But no one acknowledged that other papers had run similar stories.
Our decision to apologise was made because the then Everton player, Wayne Rooney, was being vilified on Merseyside for his buy-up with the Sun.
I had phoned the support group before we went to press, to let them know what we were planning and gauge their reaction. Phil Hammond, who lost his 14-year-old son in the tragedy, is a dignified, softly spoken man who, like many on Merseyside, is tormented by the knowledge there has never been justice for those who died at Hillsborough.
After I read him the apology, there was a long pause before, almost screaming with rage, he said his son hadn't had the chance to live to be as old as 19-year-old Rooney. What right had the Sun to lecture anyone in Liverpool?
Next morning, to prove we meant what we said, I took part in a phone-in with the voice of Radio Merseyside, Roger Phillips. It was the first time in 15 years anyone from Wapping had faced the music in Liverpool.
The first caller was Joan from Birkenhead. "I lost two of my sons in that disaster and I am disgusted at what the Sun printed that day ... Even 15 years later, I can never accept that apology." For the next hour, call after call lambasted the Sun. The apology was dismissed as a ploy to sell papers.
There seemed to be no chance of our apology being accepted until a phone call came from the BBC's religious unit. Would the Sun be interested in taking part in an Everyman programme about forgiveness? The director, Ashok Prasad, explained that he was making a film about what it takes to forgive, and was hoping to set up a meeting between the Sun and the Family Support Group (HFSG). It seemed an avenue worth exploring.
And so, with a BBC crew in tow, I ventured to Anfield for a nerve-wracking meeting with four members of the HFSG who had agreed to see me on an informal basis. We sat round a table as I put forward the reasons why the Sun's apology was genuine and worth accepting. No apology can be perfect, especially if you are addressing an entire community. But isn't a late apology better than no apology?
I explained it was not just the Sun that ran that version of events. And none of the present senior team was at Wapping in 1989, when the current editor was a college student. We are not, as many Merseysiders have believed for 15 years, protecting a source. If the apology was accepted, the Sun would use all its power to campaign for justice for those who were killed.
But after hearing the arguments, those in the room replaced unbridled hostility with a desire to explore peace with the paper and the dividends that could bring. They agreed to call a special meeting of the HFSG where every relative would be asked to vote on whether I could address them, after which they would hold a ballot to accept or reject the apology.
I knew several members wanted to accept and let us campaign for them. They told me so privately. But what they wouldn't do is publicly express that view for fear of being ostracised by their community.
This understandable fear was our undoing. At the specially convened meeting, the HFSG decided by one vote not to let me speak. I would have understood if they'd rejected the apology after hearing what I'd said. But to not even let me put forward our point of view made no sense.
Despite the setback, we didn't give up. Hammond agreed to hold another vote at the group's next meeting. But the families never got to hear the arguments because shortly afterwards Hammond and the committee members I'd met turned on the BBC.
They demanded that the scene of me receiving the "no" phone call from Hammond was not broadcast. The call itself wasn't recorded but they felt that this was a private call and shouldn't have been filmed, claiming they'd been offered editorial control over which parts of our first Anfield meeting could be broadcast. The BBC insists it never grants control in such circumstances. And tonight the scenes they didn't want anyone to see will be shown.
Perhaps after seeing the film, which carries four separate stories about the benefits of forgiveness, some on Merseyside might find the courage to say what they believe, and publicly accept the Sun's apology.
Almost 16 years on from Hillsborough, it could be the last chance for relatives of those who died to get justice.
· Graham Dudman is managing editor of the Sun. The Sun Says Sorry and Other Tales of Forgiveness is on BBC2 tonight at 9pm.
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