From the afternoon of the disaster onwards, media outlets turned to police forces and individual officers for information about what had happened. The first TV and radio reports from the BBC (which was broadcasting at the game) included suggestions that the disaster had occurred after supporters forced open a gate to gain entry to the stadium. This same explanation had been given by Ch Supt Duckenfield, in his first conversations with senior officials from the FA and SWFC who were at the game.
These suggestions were corrected by CC Wright on the evening of the disaster. In a press conference, he confirmed that the gate had been opened by the police. Nonetheless, the next day some newspapers included the suggestion that supporters had forced a gate.
During the Goldring Inquests, Ch Supt Duckenfield admitted that his account to FA and SWFC officials had been a lie and apologised for it.
In the days that followed the disaster, reports in the national and regional media described Liverpool supporters at the game as drunk, and repeated allegations that supporters had forced entry into the stadium. While this was by no means the tone of all the media coverage, the focus on the behaviour of Liverpool supporters intensified. On Tuesday 18 and Wednesday 19 April, numerous newspapers published articles which alleged that some supporters had attacked police officers and stolen from those who had died. One of these reports was an article in The Sun, headlined ‘The Truth’.
Many of these reports quoted unnamed police sources, making comments that were highly critical of the behaviour of Liverpool supporters. Some of these police sources were described as “senior officers”; The Sun attributed comments to “a high-ranking officer at the ground”.
The HIP Report cited a range of documents and other material that raised questions about the accuracy of the information given to the media by police sources in the immediate aftermath of the disaster. It found no documentary evidence to support many of the stories that had been repeated in media coverage over the years.
It also raised a more serious allegation: that SYP, in an organised and deliberate way, may have sought to use the media as a means of deflecting the blame for the disaster away from the police, on to Liverpool supporters.
