Here’s another complaint made against the Daily Mail which was resolved through the PCC:
The National AIDS Trust and the Terrence Higgins Trust complained, on behalf of Nkosinati Mabanda, to the Press Complaints Commission that the assertion in the headline of the online article that Mr Mabanda was a “HIV Monster” represented a pejorative reference to his status as HIV positive. It established an association between being HIV positive and acting as a “monster”. The organisations were further concerned by the assertion that Mr Mabanda had “knowingly” passed on HIV – this was not possible as HIV transmission was not an automatic consequence of unprotected sex.
And the resolution:
The complaint was resolved when the newspaper altered the headline to read: “Monster who infected woman with HIV virus and had unprotected sex with seven others is jailed”. It also removed the term “knowingly” from its opening paragraph. While the National AIDS Trust and the Terrence Higgins Trust maintained that the phrase “HIV Monster” was a breach of Clause 12 (Discrimination) of the Code, it accepted the actions taken by the newspaper as a suitable resolution to the complaint.
Despite this, the Mail article still says “HIV monster” in the page title and in the URL.
The phrase “HIV monster” was also used by the Sun, but it’s not clear if a complaint was made against this article as well.