CiF Watch prompts correction at 'The Independent' to Omar Misharawi story

On March 13, we posted a round-up of how the major British papers responded to new revelations regarding the death of Omar Misharawi (the 11-month old son of journalist Jihad Mishrawi) during the Gaza war.

Misharawi’s death was widely attributed to an Israeli missile, but a recent UN report demonstrated that the boy was most likely killed by an errant Palestinian rocket.

We reviewed the Guardian, The Telegraph, Daily Mail, The Spectator, The Sun, The Times and The Independent.

Since that post, we’ve been in contact with the papers which hadn’t already published a retraction (or a new story) based on the recent news about Misharawi’s death, and, as a result of our communication with The Independent (as well as emails by a concerned reader) they’ve added additional text to their Nov. 15 report by Amol Rajan, ‘11-month old son of BBC picture editor is killed in Gaza‘.

The report, which had originally attributed the boy’s death to Israeli fire, now includes the following before the opening passage of the report:

A report of 6 March by the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights concluded that the death of Omar Masharawi was the result of “what appeared to be a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel” .

Additionally, shortly after our correspondence with the Daily Mail over their Nov. 15 report on the death of Misharawi, which similarly blamed Israel for the boy’s death, they added the following bullet above the text:

The BBC Arabic employee’s son Omar was killed in Gaza by an airstrike, probably a Palestinian rocket that fell short of Israel

We appreciate the prompt response by editors at both The Indy and Daily Mail.

Of the papers we reviewed, The Sun, The Telegraph, and The Times haven’t, thus far, issued a retraction or published a new story in light of the new information.