diff --git a/httprewrite/rawbody.go b/httprewrite/rawbody.go
index 354e077..9380afc 100644
--- a/httprewrite/rawbody.go
+++ b/httprewrite/rawbody.go
@@ -80,10 +80,13 @@ func getRawBodyReader(res *http.Response) (body io.ReadCloser, mimeType string,
 	contentType := res.Header.Get("Content-Type")
 	mimeType, params, err := mime.ParseMediaType(contentType)
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("parse content type %q: %v", contentType, err)
+		mimeType = "text/plain" // Fallback
 	}
-	if encoding == "" && strings.ToLower(params["charset"]) == "utf-8" {
-		// The body is already UTF-8 encoded and not compressed.
+
+	// [FIX 1] Treat missing charset as UTF-8 (Modern Web Default)
+	// If encoding is empty and no charset is specified, pass the body through raw.
+	charsetParam := strings.ToLower(params["charset"])
+	if encoding == "" && (charsetParam == "utf-8" || charsetParam == "") {
 		return res.Body, mimeType, nil
 	}
 
@@ -92,6 +95,12 @@ func getRawBodyReader(res *http.Response) (body io.ReadCloser, mimeType string,
 		return nil, "", fmt.Errorf("create decompressed reader for encoding %q: %v", encoding, err)
 	}
 
+	// [FIX 2] If we reach here (because of compression), ensure we don't 
+	// let charset.NewReader default to Windows-1252 if charset is missing.
+	if charsetParam == "" {
+		contentType = mimeType + "; charset=utf-8"
+	}
+
 	decodedReader, err := charset.NewReader(decompressedReader, contentType)
 	if err != nil {
 		decompressedReader.Close()