Statement from Margaret Aspinall
Responding to the announcement of appointments to the press regulator, Margaret Aspinall, Chair of the Hillsborough Family Support Group, said:
“Given what the families - and indeed the city of Liverpool - have gone through at the hands of some in the press, HFSG fully supported Lord Justice Leveson’s original recommendations for a fair, independent and effective system of press regulation.
“For the Hillsborough families now going through the ordeal of the new inquest, this feels like a fresh insult. It tells us that lessons have certainly not been learned by the press, despite their claims to the contrary.
“Mr Newman had a key role in defending the outrageous coverage of the Sun of the Hillsborough Disaster and in the abject failure of the newspaper to properly apologise when it was clear they had printed hurtful lies and not ‘the truth’. That is why his appointment to the board of the new regulator is totally unacceptable to us and we believe will undermine public confidence in it.
“The HFSG believes that the Appointments Panel which put this name forward needs urgently to reconsider its decision if this new body is to have any credibility.”
ENDS
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