The Sun on the 'blackest day' of the paper's history

The Sun's reporting of the Hillsborough tragedy 23 years ago is without doubt the blackest day in this newspaper's history.

The Hillsborough Independent Panel's report into the disaster lays bare the disgraceful attempt by South Yorkshire police to hide their culpability behind a smokescreen of lies.

But it is to the eternal discredit of The Sun that we reported as fact this misinformation which tarnished the reputation of Liverpool fans including the 96 victims.

Today we unreservedly apologise to the Hillsborough victims, their families, Liverpool supporters, the city of Liverpool and all our readers for that misjudgment.

The role of a newspaper is to uncover injustice. To forensically examine the claims made by those who are in positions of power.

In the aftermath of the Hillsborough tragedy we failed.

And by failing in our duty we heaped more misery on the families of those who lost their lives and the people of Liverpool.

Nothing can excuse The Sun's Page One presentation, under the headline The Truth.

It was inaccurate, grossly insensitive and offensive. This version of events was not the truth.