British daily acknowledges news piece maligning Pakistan was 'misleading'

ISLAMABAD: An English daily The Telegraph, head-quartered in Britain, has posted a correction of its previous ‘misleading’ news wherein it had alleged Pakistan was behind the increasing COVID cases in England and has amended it on Tuesday, ARY News reported.

Our Tweet 26/6 “Pakistan…origin of half of Britain’s imported virus cases” (below) was misleading as it suggested that half of all the UK’s imported cases originated in Pakistan. In fact, the figures only related to the period 4-26/6.

This Tweet follows an IPSO ruling

— The Telegraph (@Telegraph) December 22, 2020

According to the newspaper, it followed an Independent Press Standards Organization (ISPO) ruling which advises editors, “A significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and — where appropriate — an apology published. In cases involving IPSO, due prominence should be as required by the regulator.”

The news article has now amended its original headline which it admitted was misleading and could make people infer that Pakistan was the greatest contributor of imported COVID cases in the UK.

The piece has also carried a correction below which reads as follows:

CORRECTION: This article is based on PHE data relating to individuals who have travelled to the UK from Pakistan between June 4 and the article’s publication date: it does not cover the entire period of the pandemic, as readers may have inferred from its original headline and text wording, now amended.