Family support group says appointment of paper's ex-managing editor to board of new press regulator undermines its credibility

The Hillsborough Family Support Group has said that the appointment of former Sun executive William Newman to the board of the successor to the Press Complaints Commission is "totally unacceptable".

Newman, who signed a letter defending the Sun's infamous coverage of the Hillsborough football tragedy, was one of 12 figures named to the board of the Independent Press Standards Organisation on Wednesday.

"For the Hillsborough families now going through the ordeal of the new inquest, this feels like a fresh insult," said Margaret Aspinall, chair of the HFSG. "It tells us that lessons have certainly not been learned by the press, despite their claims to the contrary."

Newman worked at the Sun under editor Kelvin MacKenzie when the title published its discredited account of the disaster, published on the 19 April 1989 under the headline "The Truth".

The coverage accused quoted unnamed police accusing "some fans" of urinating on the dead, pickpocketing bodies and beating up police officers giving the kiss of life.

In a letter dated 28 April 1989 responding to widespread complaints, Newman wrote a letter to families defending the coverage: "We are sorry that, possibly clouded by grief, many have not understood that it is the Sun's duty as a newspaper to publish information, however hurtful and unpalatable it may be at the time. On reflection, we accept the way in which the article was displayed could have given cause for offence. For that we apologise. For the substance we do not."

Aspinall said the role that Newman played in the Sun's handling of the coverage of Hillsborough undermined Ipso's credibility.

"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'," said Aspinall. "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".

Aspinall said that appointments panel, which is chaired by Sir Hayden Phillips, "needs to urgently to reconsider its decision if this new body is to have any credibility."

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