at-Largely
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Earlier this morning, Reuters
(and AP too) news service ran a piece citing one UK government
official and an anonymous Iranian source alleging that the IAEA
inspectors were thrown barred out of Iran. Now just to make clear
why this is important, Saddam Hussein had allegedly done the same
thing according to reports, which was not true.
The IAEA cannot and does not generally issue specific responses
when dealing with a country, because the matters are confidential.
So I called them to see how solid this story was that Reuters
put out. My report is at Raw
Story, but here is in part the statement I was given, which
is up in full at RS:
"It should be noted however, that there are a sufficient
number of inspectors designated for Iran and the IAEA is able
to perform its inspection activities in accordance with Iran's
Comprehensive Safeguards Agreement."
For them to issue this statement shows how concerned they are
about these reports, so concerned, they are willing to go on the
record and issue something more than just their standard confidentiality
statement. It also shows that the Reuters reporter did not contact
the IAEA, inexplicably.
Is this bad reporting or propaganda?
AP responds (link is in the original RS article):
"Update: After an inquiry by RAW STORY, the Associated Press'
Director of Corporate Communications Jack Stokes said they could
not reach the spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy
Agency after running a story asserting that Iran had barred 38
IAEA inspectors.
"IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming and other agency officials
did not immediately return after-hours calls from The Associated
Press," AP reporter NASSER KARIMI wrote.
Raw Story's Larisa Alexandrovna received comment from the agency
shortly after the story broke this morning. AP's original article
didn't indicate if they'd called the IAEA about Iran's claims
before filing with the headline, "Iran bars 38 IAEA nuclear
inspectors."
Stokes did not say why the AP called the agency after hours."
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