diff --git a/content/content.c b/content/content.c
index 3d3e88702..39b1c7389 100644
--- a/content/content.c
+++ b/content/content.c
@@ -283,7 +283,8 @@ struct content * content_get(const char *url)
 	struct content *c;
 
 	for (c = content_list; c; c = c->next) {
-		if (c->fresh && strcmp(c->url, url) == 0)
+		if (c->fresh && c->status != CONTENT_STATUS_ERROR &&
+				strcmp(c->url, url) == 0)
 			return c;
 	}
 
diff --git a/content/fetchcache.c b/content/fetchcache.c
index 65145ab36..fb671ea50 100644
--- a/content/fetchcache.c
+++ b/content/fetchcache.c
@@ -278,6 +278,9 @@ void fetchcache_callback(fetch_msg msg, void *p, const char *data,
 				msg_data.error = messages_get("BadRedirect");
 				content_broadcast(c, CONTENT_MSG_ERROR, msg_data);
 			}
+			/* set the status to ERROR so that the content is
+			 * destroyed in content_clean() */
+			c->status = CONTENT_STATUS_ERROR;
 			break;
 #ifdef WITH_AUTH
 		case FETCH_AUTH:
@@ -286,6 +289,9 @@ void fetchcache_callback(fetch_msg msg, void *p, const char *data,
 			c->fetch = 0;
 			msg_data.auth_realm = data;
 			content_broadcast(c, CONTENT_MSG_AUTH, msg_data);
+			/* set the status to ERROR so that the content is
+			 * destroyed in content_clean() */
+			c->status = CONTENT_STATUS_ERROR;
 			break;
 #endif
 		default: