AKEED, Aya Khawaldeh

Several electronic sites published a story on "the death of a child by heroin overdose in Ruseifah," quoting social media sites, which circulated it on their pages, along with analysis and condemnation. The Jordanian Media Credibility Monitor (AKEED) followed the publishing and circulation of this story and how media outlets handled it. The story originally appeared on Facebook pages, including a page that carried the title "Public Security."

Two news sites made a call to a security source, who did not reveal his identity and who denied the information published on social media sites, explaining that the cause of death was the decrease in heart rate and that the child, who is 13 years old, had suffered from chronic diseases. The child was taken to the nearest hospital by her parents, but she died and was referred to a forensic examiner to confirm the cause of death.

Meanwhile, a large number of electronic news sites published the story as posted on social media sites, which said that the cause of death was heroin. Some of these sites quickly removed or changed the story after the issuance of the security statement through the two above websites. Some sites kept the story in its original wording.   

However, the change that these sites introduced to the story made its headline read as follows: "Truth of Death of Child by "Heroin" Dose in Ruseifah." This headline is again deceptive because it does not deny the previous erroneous content, but adds to it a new appealing element, which is also based on error. This means that these outlets corrected one mistake with another.

Correcting mistakes is a valid media practice, which requires acknowledging a mistake and making an apology to readers or to the party that was the victim of the mistake. However, what happened in this case is that publishing, in the first instance, depended on erroneous information, while, in the second, it depended on a misleading headline.

This story is not the first mistake committed by media outlets that depend on sensational headlines to attract attention and achieve a scoop at the expense of accuracy and verification of information before publishing it. Speed in publishing this information confused public opinion and caused offense to the private life of the concerned individuals. This violates the professional principles and standards of the press.