Press view on panel report

David Conn, The Guardian

[Bishop of Liverpool, James] Jones, sitting calmly in the cathedral from which he performs his duties to the diocese of Liverpool, said that as a pastor he was "committed to a just and fair world". He added: "That goes to the heart of our work as a panel: we are looking for truth, and justice." And there was that word again. After so many years, so much pain, so long and terrible a battle waged by families who would not give up for their loved ones, it has been finally reclaimed. The truth.

Tony Barrett, The Times

The Hillsborough families have literally applauded the panel for their work. They're the kind of people who should never have to buy their own ale in Liverpool ever again. A scriptwriter couldn't have created a day like today. I never thought my admiration for the Hillsborough families could grow any more. Today it did. Exceptional people. If anyone should see Bishop James Jones or other HIP members today be sure to shake them by the hand. They've done a wonderful thing.

Paddy Shennan, Liverpool Echo

This was the day when cold, hard facts replaced bare-faced lies and a callous, cold-hearted campaign of misinformation and malicious slurs. It was punching-the-air brilliant. Because it was a day which provided much more than many of us had believed possible. It was a day of apologies (no, Kelvin MacKenzie's wasn't accepted), confirmations, clarity, new information which promises future accountability - and a day, above all, of vindication for the 96 who died at Hillsborough, their families, friends, the survivors and their families and friends.

Brian Reade, Daily Mirror

On Wednesday afternoon, hugging bereaved parents like Trevor and Jenni Hicks, Margaret Aspinall and Barry Devonside, I realised it was the first time in 20 years we'd done so in joy. But it was the strangest kind of joy. The sense of triumph and relief that the families had finally been vindicated was laced with anger. A deep, simmering anger that it had taken an eternity for the full picture to emerge. That the bereaved and the survivors had been kicked to hell and back, leaving a soul-numbing trail of broken marriages, suicides and deaths through broken hearts.

Henry Winter, Daily Telegraph

So the families now have the truth. So now the state that so badly let them down must give them justice. A new - truthful - inquest must be ordered by the High Court. Prime Minister David Cameron spoke well on Wednesday but proper, significant deeds must now follow his fine words. The Attorney General must take this on. So must the courts. The families deserve to have their stories heard in court, to have those whose failures led to their children's deaths be called to account. Those who spread smears must be arraigned. Justice will bring undeniable succour to the families if never, ever closure.

Ian Herbert, The Independent

There had been no QCs, no adversarial exchanges, no televised event, no leaks. Simply nine dignified individuals, led by a bishop, in two-and-a-half years of quiet, persistent pursuit of information. The quality and quantity of what they produced took your breath away - and blew away for ever the "3.15 cut-off", words which have tracked the course of nearly a quarter of a century in this city, effectively clearing the way for the inquests that will surely prove that the deaths of 96 people were caused by misadventure, if not manslaughter.

Matt Lawton, Daily Mail

It will not end until someone has answered for the 41 lives that could have been saved after 3.15pm that day. For the 164 statements that were amended. For the disgusting attempts that were made by politicians, the police and the emergency services to shift the blame on to innocent Liverpool supporters. It was in spite of those lies that English football evolved in the way that it did after Hillsborough. It is in a better place. The stadiums are safer, the environment much more family-friendly. For parents a day out at the football should no longer hold any fears. But football can continue to learn and, if it can take something from the shocking revelations that have emerged from 450,000 pages of evidence, it is the need for everyone to start showing some respect.

Oliver Kay, The Times

For 23 years those who have campaigned for the truth about Hillsborough have been an oppressed minority. Now, finally, the minority are those left clinging, pathetically, to the futility of the lies that the anti-football culture of the 1980s, combined with the type of tribalism that only ever manifests itself at a safe distance behind police cordons or usernames, has been so keen to propagate. But their time is up. The truth, finally, has got its shoes on and caught up with the lies once and for all.