FOLLOW THE EXAMPLE OF LIVERPOOL: DON'T BUY THE NEWS OF THE WORLD

As people digest the news that in 2002 an employee of the News of the World allegedly hacked the mobile phone of missing teenager Milly Dowler and deleted messages on her voicemail, thus giving false hope to her parents and potentially delaying the police investigation, people will rightly feel a sense of indignation.  The lawyer to the Dowler family used the word ‘heinous’ to describe the allegations of wrongdoing by senior figures in Rupert Murdoch’s News Corps.  Indeed, this is now clearly a whole new level from the hacking of the phones of celebrities or sports starts.

Sadly, however, this is not the first time News Corps has fragrantly abused the rights of the innocent victims of a horrendous and shocking crime.  In  1989, 96 Liverpool fans were crushed to death at a football match held at Hillsborough in Sheffield.  In the days that followed the disaster, the Sun – also owned by News Corps – ran a front-page story in which it purported to reveal ‘the truth’ about what happened that day.  In fact, what the newspaper spread was a series of malicious and baseless lies, including that Liverpool fans picked the pockets of victims and urinated on police officers.  All claims were proven to be false.

Like the parents of Millie Dowler today, the hurt that the victims of the Hillsborough tragedy must have felt as a direct result of the actions of News Corps, in a flagrant effort to sell more newspapers no matter what the human cost, is difficult to comprehend.

However, in a sense of unity that in many ways characterises both the city and the football club, a campaign against the Sun was almost immediately set up.  Many newsagents refused to sell the newspaper, and there were public burnings of it.  On signing for the club, players are instructed not to give interviews to the Sun, and, during a recent FA Cup tie at Anfield, Liverpool fans sang ‘justice for the 96’ and created a mosaic spelling out ‘the truth’, in ironic reference to the Sun’s original front page.  Many locals refuse even to refer to the newspaper by name, preferring the S*n in writing or simply the ‘Scum’. In 2004 the Sun finally issued an apology for what it called ‘the most terrible mistake in its history’ but Kelvin Mackenzie, the newspaper’s editor at the time of the tragedy, still refuses to apologise, a point that – alongside his continual employment on the BBC – provokes outrage on Merseyside.

The effect of the boycott on sales of the Sun in Liverpool has been dramatic.  Almost overnight, and for more than 20 years, the newspaper’s sales have slumped regionally from an average of 200,000 before the tragedy to sales of just 12,000.  This was estimated to have cost Rupert Murdoch more than £50million.  Given the apparent absence of morality of many of those who work in Murdoch’s ever-expanding news empire, for those outraged by the latest allegations, the best thing to do is follow the example of Liverpool: vote with your feet.

For more information about Liverpool's campaign against the Sun, please visit: http://dontbuythesun.co.uk/site/