#garbage press

"I think it stops here."

Sara Delgado OCT 22, 2018 10:11AM EDT

Former One Direction member and current solo artist Liam Payne has obviously dealt with more than his fair share of paparazzi photos and rabid attention — it's an unfortunate hazard of being part of one of the biggest boy bands in history. Now, however, Liam is calling out a harmful aspect of paparazzi and tabloid culture: how it treats the women who work with him.

On Oct. 21, Liam Payne responded to a story by the Daily Mail that highlighted the presence of a “mystery girl” with him at The Rosewood Hotel in London. On Twitter, Liam pointed out that the person in the photo is a member of his team, and used the experience to make a larger statement.

"My team is full of talented, smart professional women," he wrote. "I find it wrong that they are reduced to being linked to me romantically in the press just for simply standing next to me. Isn’t it time we treat women with a bit more respect?"

Liam then added, "So far the press have done this with every female member of my staff it’s demeaning some are in relationships and it complicates there work environment when they do this to them ... I think it stops here."

Fans were quick to support Liam’s stance, leaving messages of encouragement for the singer’s actions. “Thank you for speaking up. It does need to stop. These women are hard working and part of your team,” one fan wrote. Another one added: “Thank you for addressing that it affects them too. What a mature and eloquent way of shutting down the tabloids! I am proud.”

People also noted that coverage of famous people can veer into invasion of privacy, as a person added, “The media’s disrespect for other people’s life is absolutely disgusting. To them it’s more important to sell some made-up article than anything else. The fact that a man and woman can’t even stand next to each other without media making up rumors is a big part of the sexism today.”

Liam's experience also serves as a reminder to readers that not every article you see about a celebrity is true, and that it can be harmful to speculate about celeb relationships when there's no proof, or when the "proof" is a photo of two people hanging out together.

Jonas Blue: x

Liam: x

So basically the Sun is like:

And JB and Liam be like: