diff --git a/pkg/api/errors.go b/pkg/api/errors.go
index ddd1c9f9..0ef63c7e 100644
--- a/pkg/api/errors.go
+++ b/pkg/api/errors.go
@@ -11,6 +11,12 @@ type Error struct {
 	Detail      interface{} `json:"detail,omitempty"`
 }
 
+func (e Error) WithMessage(msg string) Error {
+	e.Message = msg
+
+	return e
+}
+
 type ErrorList struct {
 	Errors []*Error `json:"errors"`
 }
diff --git a/pkg/api/routes.go b/pkg/api/routes.go
index 37642d2e..dffef680 100644
--- a/pkg/api/routes.go
+++ b/pkg/api/routes.go
@@ -587,7 +587,7 @@ func (rh *RouteHandler) UpdateManifest(response http.ResponseWriter, request *ht
 				NewErrorList(NewError(INVALID_INDEX, map[string]string{"name": name})))
 		} else if errors.Is(err, zerr.ErrImageLintAnnotations) {
 			WriteJSON(response, http.StatusBadRequest,
-				NewErrorList(NewError(MANIFEST_INVALID, map[string]string{"reference": reference})))
+				NewErrorList(NewError(MANIFEST_INVALID, map[string]string{"reference": reference}).WithMessage(err.Error())))
 		} else {
 			// could be syscall.EMFILE (Err:0x18 too many opened files), etc
 			rh.c.Log.Error().Err(err).Msg("unexpected error: performing cleanup")
diff --git a/pkg/extensions/lint/lint.go b/pkg/extensions/lint/lint.go
index d05c7893..118cf3e0 100644
--- a/pkg/extensions/lint/lint.go
+++ b/pkg/extensions/lint/lint.go
@@ -5,10 +5,13 @@ package lint
 
 import (
 	"encoding/json"
+	"fmt"
 
 	godigest "github.com/opencontainers/go-digest"
 	ispec "github.com/opencontainers/image-spec/specs-go/v1"
+	"github.com/pkg/errors"
 
+	zerr "zotregistry.io/zot/errors"
 	"zotregistry.io/zot/pkg/extensions/config"
 	"zotregistry.io/zot/pkg/log"
 	"zotregistry.io/zot/pkg/storage"
@@ -98,10 +101,11 @@ func (linter *Linter) CheckMandatoryAnnotations(repo string, manifestDigest godi
 
 	missingAnnotations = getMissingAnnotations(mandatoryAnnotationsMap)
 	if len(missingAnnotations) > 0 {
-		linter.log.Error().Msgf("linter: manifest %s / config %s are missing annotations: %s",
+		msg := fmt.Sprintf("\nlinter: manifest %s\nor config %s\nis missing the next annotations: %s",
 			string(manifestDigest), string(configDigest), missingAnnotations)
+		linter.log.Error().Msg(msg)
 
-		return false, nil
+		return false, errors.WithMessage(zerr.ErrImageLintAnnotations, msg)
 	}
 
 	return true, nil
diff --git a/pkg/extensions/lint/lint_test.go b/pkg/extensions/lint/lint_test.go
index 8e6b5d25..73fdbccf 100644
--- a/pkg/extensions/lint/lint_test.go
+++ b/pkg/extensions/lint/lint_test.go
@@ -636,7 +636,7 @@ func TestVerifyMandatoryAnnotationsFunction(t *testing.T) {
 			log.NewLogger("debug", ""), monitoring.NewMetricsServer(false, log.NewLogger("debug", "")), linter, nil)
 
 		pass, err := linter.CheckMandatoryAnnotations("zot-test", digest, imgStore)
-		So(err, ShouldBeNil)
+		So(err, ShouldNotBeNil)
 		So(pass, ShouldBeFalse)
 	})