An Aids charity has called on the Mirror to apologise for a “highly stigmatising” opinion piece published online about a Hollywood A-lister with HIV, later revealed to be Charlie Sheen, that said he should die in “misery, poverty and pain”.
The column, titled “Hollywood actor with HIV deserves everything he gets – and worse”, was written by Fleet Street Fox, the pseudonym of blogger Susie Boniface.
In the column, the author said she was sorry the actor won’t find it impossible to get treatment, that his family won’t abandon him to “rot in a squat” and hoped he “does at least die in the same misery, poverty and pain as so many others do”.
The National Aids Trust has sent a lengthy letter to the Mirror criticising the article for encouraging prejudice against those living with HIV.
“These statements actively incite hatred of people living with HIV,” said Deborah Gold, chief executive of the National Aids Trust. “It is dangerous to encourage the, unfortunately still prevalent, opinion that only some people living with HIV are deserving of the basic human dignities of privacy and health.”
Sheen this week disclosed that he was the actor who was the subject of the HIV speculation, having been diagnosed four years ago.
Sheen, who spoke on NBC’s Today programme on Tuesday, said he has had unprotected sex twice since his diagnosis but has not passed on the virus.
Gold said the National Aids Trust has typically viewed the Mirror as having a record of “accurate and constructive” reporting on HIV issues in the past and hoped that the opinion piece was an “aberration”.
“This article is highly stigmatising and places HIV above other medical conditions, as deserving of judgment,” she said. “NAT requests that the Mirror remove the article and publish an apology for the impact it may have had on people in the UK who are living with and affected by HIV.”