Sefton Council last night voted on the following motion to call for newspaper vendors to stop selling the Sun Newspaper.

The motion was passed without a single vote against and just one abstention.


To consider the following Motion submitted by Councillor
Friel:

“On 15th April 1989, a disaster at Hillsborough Stadium in
Sheffield led, ultimately, to the deaths of 96 innocent fans
who had left home that morning to watch a football match.

Due to crowd control mis-management those fans, whose
ages ranged from 10 to 67 years old, had the life crushed out
of them.

Contrary to the facts, the S*n published a front page story
with the banner headline ‘The Truth’ which contained blatant
lies.

Here are just a couple of the lies:
‘Drunken Liverpool fans viciously attacked workers as they
tried to rescue victims and police officers, firemen and
ambulance crew were punched, kicked and urinated upon.’
This was printed in a British national newspaper!


For this reason the Council calls on all retailers and vendors
of newspapers in the Borough of Sefton to stop selling The
S*n. We applaud the group called ‘Total Eclipse of the S*n’
for their endeavours to rid Sefton of this newspaper.”

Sefton PR

Sefton Council has supported a motion calling on all retailers and vendors of newspapers in the borough to stop selling copies of The S*n.

The motion was submitted by Cllr Gordon Friel at last night's (November 17) Full Council meeting held at Southport Town Hall and was approved with the full support of council.

It also applauded the group called 'Total Eclipse of the S*n' for their endeavours to rid Sefton of the newspaper.


Cllr Gordon Friel said: "I am delighted the motion received cross party support and we now follow in the footsteps of other local authorities and partner agencies in adopting this stance.

"What was reported in this paper after the Hillsborough tragedy was a pack of lies and we hope by supporting this motion we can give retailers the confidence to make their own choices on whether or not to sell the paper.

"Hopefully as more and more retailers choose to stop stocking and selling this paper, it will simply disappear from Merseyside."

Cllr Ian Maher, Labour Leader at Sefton Council, added: "I applaud this motion and everything it stands for.

"As an area, Sefton suffered terribly with the loss of many lives following the Hillsborough tragedy and some of those wounds will never heal.

"Asking retailers and vendors in the borough to stop selling The S*n newspaper lends our continuous support to all the Hillsborough families and shows we will never forgive or forget what was published."

Schools are closing,services are being cut to the bone,and all the b loody Council can do is have a vote to encourage shopkeepers not to sell a newspaper.

Surely there are more important matters.

Where has freedom of choice gone?

They will be telling us what to have for lunch next.

There are many reasons not to "read" the Sun and many on Merseyside don't need telling. I'm not sure what value there is in Sefton council playing student "gesture politics" when they have a Borough to run.

Totally bloody futile gesture politics. I have never bought The Sun in my life but the next time I walk in to a newsagent I'm going to buy one.

Hillsborough was over 27 years ago for goodness sake. For how much longer is this nonsense going to continue? 50 years? 100 years? Are people on Merseyside aiming to break the Guinness World record for holding a grudge?

Agree with the point on freedom of choice.

I don't buy the Sun, partly because of Hillsborough, partly because it's a right wing piece of crap. But not everybody that walks into a newsagent, particularly in the town centre, is local.

What a waste of Council time.

Utterly pointless gesture.
How many Liverpool fans are still happy to line Rupert Murdoch's pockets with their Sky subscriptions?

Was that the only item on the agenda? how much in allowances was claimed by these councillors attending the meeting?

If people want to live in a country where censorship is the norm then go to China. I don't want to be told which newspaper I can and can't buy. What next.....being told which TV channel I can view?

If we're in the business of retribution perhaps we should put a ban on Audis and BMW's because of WW2. Or how about clearing the supermarket shelves of corned beef because of the Falklands?

Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights provides the right to freedom of expression. This right includes the freedom to hold opinions, and to receive and impart information and ideas.

There are restrictions (e.g. interests of national security), but none of these apply.

I have never bought the Sun, but for local government to take away my freedom of choice is the thin end of the wedge.

On 10 May 1933, in an act of ominous significance, upwards of 25,000 volumes of "un-German" books were burnt, thereby presaging an era of uncompromising state censorship.

“I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.” Voltaire.

I have contact our MP about this matter, no doubt he will be in touch as soon as he wakes up.

Much as I detest the filthy rag, and everything else that Murdoch stands for (remember Millie Dowler?) I think that this is the thin end of the wedge when elected politicians try to impose censorship.

Hitler used to organise book-burnings, and people in China would disappear if they didn't carry their Little Red Book. Is that where we're going?

Calm down dears - the Council are merely encouraging a boycott of the Sun newspaper - not banning it, or censoring it as has been suggested on here.
To quote Voltaire and reference Kristal Nacht is way OTT.

To head things off at the pass - I agree with the boycott sentiment and for some this will still be raw no matter how long ago it was.

And on next weeks agenda will be the encouragement of Internet Service Providers to block local news sites that regularly write lies and misleading propaganda against the local council.

My issues with The S*n aren't specifically tied to one event and are more general as the paper seems content to stir up frustrations and racist sentiments in order to sell more papers. As we found it this year, stirring up unjustified hatred directed towards specific groups of people seems to the way to go to end up in a position of power or to make more money. It will take more than a boycott of one paper to create a more tolerant society, but it may be one more step on the ladder.

I thought long and hard about what to call them other than a paper, but to do so would have been the sort of prejudiced sentiments that I hate it for.

is this the start of Public censorship? . I dont and never will buy the sun but it is my right to have a choice, remember Hitler started somewhere !!!

Originally Posted by gazaprop

To quote Voltaire and reference Kristal Nacht is way OTT.

I disagree, but you are entitled to your stupid point of view however incorrect it is.

“I wholly disapprove of what you say—and will defend to the death your right to say it.”