ABSTRACT
Andrew Flinn and Wendy M. Duff examine the three-decades long struggle for public access to records of the 1989 Hillsborough Disaster, the worst stadium disaster in British history that resulted in the deaths of 96 individuals. They draw on interviews, public lectures, and records to investigate what was known and accepted about the disaster across time to understand the role archival records played in identifying the actions of the various actors. Their narrative demonstrates how the versions of events long promoted by the police, other public authorities, and sections of the media that blamed the victims were ultimately discredited. They highlight that the long and painful struggle for greater access to the record was a critical prerequisite for two distinct steps in a larger path toward justice: firstly, discursive justice, or modifying the public narrative and exonerating the victims of blame for their own suffering, and secondly, retributive justice in the form of legal judgment against the police and other officials responsible for public safety.
