Kelvin MacKenzie is fighting back over his infamous Hillsborough coverage. He has instructed lawyers to write to South Yorkshire police seeking an apology for being misled by its officers in 1989.

The Sun, 19 April 1989

He argues that the lies promulgated by the force in the aftermath of the tragedy in which 96 Liverpool fans were killed prompted him to publish a front page headlined "The Truth".

Writing in tomorrow's issue of The Spectator, the former Sun editor speaks out for the first time in detail about his fateful decision to use the headline. It led to him suffering, he writes, "personal vilification for decades".

MacKenzie reveals that it was necessary to have his house patrolled by police and that he has faces physical danger should he enter the city of Liverpool.

He admits that he was wrong, but believes "the people who have got away scot-free are South Yorkshire police." He is therefore seeking recompense for "the lies their officers told".

In a key passage, he writes:

"Now I know — you know, we all know — that the fans were right. But it took 23 years, two inquiries, one inquest and research into 400,000 documents, many of which were kept secret under the 30-year no-publication rule, to discover there was a vast cover-up by South Yorkshire police about the disaster. Where does that leave me?"

Talking more broadly about Hillsborough, MacKenzie highlights the countless other publications that ran the same "copper-bottomed" story. He goes on to suggest a political motive for The Sun being singled out by a city for which he and the paper "had nothing but warm thoughts … prior to that ghastly day."

"Liverpool fans didn't turn on other media, only The Sun. That has always puzzled me. Was it picked out because the paper had always backed Thatcher, while the city had always been pro-Labour?"

Under "The Truth" headline were a series of headlines accusing Liverpool fans of having urinated over policemen who were trying to rescue people, of beating up one policeman and of picking the pockets of victims.

A South Yorkshire police spokesman said the force "awaits Mr MacKenzie's letter with interest", according to BBC News.

"It is well known that many media outlets ran similar stories at the time based on the same sources but chose to treat them differently," he said.

"Mr MacKenzie was responsible for the particular headline he chose to run with."

Footnote: I have written previously about the reason the Daily Mirror did not publish the story in the same fashion as The Sun.

Source: The Spectator