Media Reaction
On 2 April newspapers reported a weekend of "anti-authority violence", as in addition to the Strangeways riot the Poll Tax Riot had occurred in London on 31 March. Reports of the violence at Strangeways included kangaroo courts, hangings, castrations and that between eleven and twenty prisoners had been killed. On 3 April the front page of the Daily Mirror read "Prison Mob 'Hang Cop' ", and claimed a former policeman imprisoned at Strangeways for rape had been killed by prisoners. The newspaper was forced to publish a retraction admitting that "reliable police sources" had been mistaken, when it transpired that the man was actually alive and imprisoned in HM Prison Leeds. Following the end of the rooftop protest the newspapers condemned the prisoners, with The Daily Telegraph describing the riot as "a degrading public spectacle", and The Independent describing the rioters as "dangerous and unstable criminals enjoying an orgy of destruction". The Guardian urged the government to institute reforms, a view which was the prevalent one for a time, stating:
Initially, the riot appeared to increase public support for radical reform of the present degrading prison system. Some of that goodwill will have been eroded by the antics of the rioters in the last two weeks, and may be further eroded once details emerge during the forthcoming criminal prosecutions. But this must not deflect Home Office ministers from the road down which they had belatedly begun to travel. A change in prison conditions is crucial if good order is to be restored to the system.
In its last act before disbanding in 1991 and being replaced by the Press Complaints Commission, the Press Council produced a comprehensive report into the press coverage during the Strangeways riot. The report stated that "many of the more gruesome events report in the press had not occurred – nobody had been systematically mutilated, there had been no castrations, no bodies had been chopped up and flushed in the sewers. Though there was inter-prisoner violence in the first hours of the riot, torture on the scale suggested by many of the early reports did not take place." It further found that press coverage "fell into the serious ethical error of presenting speculation and unconfirmed reports as fact".
Read more about this topic: 1990 Strangeways Prison Riot
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