17 MARCH 1990, Page 32

Your Zap or mine?

Sir: My Sunday Telegraph colleague, Mr Martyn Harris, complains (Diary, 3 March) about 'a full-scale demo outside the Telegraph offices' after a 'very mild piece... about the Health Education Council's' (actually, Authority's) AIDS advertising campaign. Without wanting to be competitive, I believe that this demon- stration — to be precise an 'Act-up-Zap' was aimed at a piece of mine on the same subject. At least, that was how it was presented in a subsequent television prog- ramme. Mr Harris is quite right to com- plain about the routine accusations of malign motives against anyone who writes on the subject, to which I hope to return in the Sunday Telegraph shortly, Zapped or not.

Geoffrey Wheatcroft

Palace Hotel, St Moritz