A Tale of Two Cities: Sheffield

Abstract

At the time of the Hillsborough disaster I was the chief publicity officer at Sheffield council. This chapter aims to give the reader an idea of how we in Sheffield coped with the massive media presence in the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster. In the process there will be a few words about the legal dimension of providing information and dealing with the media in crises and disasters. Because, from the first telephone call I took from a New at Ten researcher, asking me to fax them a copy of the plans of the Hillsborough football ground, until the final verdict of the coroner’s court almost two years later, I had to be mindful that Sheffield council might be held to blame in some measure for what happened at Hillsborough. So in this chapter I will cover some of those legal implications from a public relations officer’s point of view, as well as giving some examples of how we tried to organise ourselves and keep the media satisfied.