UK papers accept mistake in accusing Pakistan for imported COVID-19 cases

 

UK papers accept mistake in accusing Pakistan of imported COVID-19 cases

• Center for Media Monitoring had complained to the Independent Press Standards Organization about false headlines
• The articles had called for "stricter quarantine controls on arrivals from high-risk countries," such as Pakistan.
• IPSO finds that the headlines give a strong and misleading impression that Britain's imported coronavirus cases originated in Pakistan.

LONDON: Five months after sensationally reporting that Pakistan was the source and responsible for half of the coronavirus cases imported from Britain, two influential British newspapers have accepted that they carried misleading and false headlines.

The Telegraph newspaper first published a story on July 26 with the headlines: "Exclusive: Half of the coronavirus cases imported from Britain originate from Pakistan."

The same story was published by the Daily Mail, The Sun, Breitbart, and several other newspapers.

The stories were highlighted by The News and Geo for inaccuracies and stereotypes of Pakistanis. News reports asked Public Health England (PHE) to provide evidence, as the Daily Telegraph had claimed it had received the information from the PHE.
The Center for Media Monitoring (CfMM), associated with the Muslim Council of Great Britain (MCB), complained to the Independent Press Standards Organization (IPSO) that Mail Online, Daily Telegraph violated Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors' Code of Practice in articles, falsely accusing Pakistan of importing crown cases into the UK.

These articles had called for "stricter quarantine controls for arrivals from high-risk countries" like Pakistan. The newspapers claimed that half of the imported infection incidents are believed to have come from Pakistan since June 4, as PHC data showed 30 cases.

The CfMM complained that the newspaper headlines were misleading as they “gave the false impression that half of all COVID-19 cases imported from the UK originated in Pakistan during a pandemic. This was not the case, as more cases of COVID-19 originated in other countries during this period, particularly in Europe. "
IPSO was informed that these articles explained the headline figure related to the period from June 4 - which was an accurate representation of the statistics published by PHE - it did not consider that this mitigated the inaccurate and misleading impression given by the headline.

The CfMM told the watchdog that these articles should also have made it clear that the specific figures come from the June 4-27 period rather than June as a whole. He also told the agency that the 30 cases imported from Pakistan were small compared to the total cases in the UK during this period. He stated that the majority of imported cases during the pandemic came from countries other than Pakistan.
Read more: British-Pakistanis fearful after a section of British media links them to imported coronavirus cases.

The headline's publication, the IPSO said, represented a clear failure on the part of the UK newspaper to take care not to publish misleading or distorted information, violating Clause 1 (Accuracy) of the Editors Code.

Following the verdict, Mail Online has clearly mentioned on its website in a caption and footnote that the 30-case figure was only from the July 4 to July 27 period.
Mail Online said: "The title of this article has been changed since its publication to make it clear that the number of imported COVID-19 cases from Pakistan to Great Britain is related to the month of June."

Daily Telegraph tweeted: "Our tweets 6/26" The Pakistani origin of half of Britain's imported virus cases was misleading, as it suggested that half of all UK imported cases originated from Pakistan, In fact, the figures only relate to the period 4-26 ”.