Media Insider - Baseless and Untrue

By David Rogers

Scarcely any subject has aroused so much discussion as the recent tragic death of the British nuclear energy expert Timothy Hampton last Tuesday after he fell from either the sixteenth or seventeenth floor of E Building at the Vienna International Centre.

According to Austrian Times enquiries Mr Hampton was hard-working and dedicated to his job as a processing engineer with the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) - and according to those who knew him he enjoyed his life in Vienna to the full.

His death therefore, which is currently the subject of a police investigation, was a double shock to those who knew him, not just because he died - but also leaving open the question as to why he died - as the Austrian Times like many others wrote when we reported on the incident and on the investigation around the death.

Among those who we spoke to were official police sources and one UN press officer as well as contacts that work at the complex where the CTBTO is based. As a Vienna-based newspaper our journalistic team which is English-speaking often has contacts with staff working at the United Nations here in the Austrian capital, and our report included information from unofficial sources such as the exclusive fact that there had been another death in similar circumstances recently.

Both reports were the subject of a lot of feedback - and among the dozens of letters and emails we received was an e-mail on Sunday with the subject "To the editor: baseless and untrue article". The letter was sent by the press office at the CTBTO and referred to the articles we have so far published on the subject.

All responsible journalists have a duty to make sure that any published work is factually accurate and the complaint from CTBTO which is published in the paragraph below was obviously treated seriously and duly considered.

It said: "Contrary to what you reported, there is no connection between the death of the staff member and the Iran talks at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The staff member, whose death is now being investigated, was employed by the Preparatory Commission for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) as a processing engineer. The CTBTO is an independent and separate organization from that of the IAEA, and has never had any role in the Iran negotiations.� Therefore, media reports linking the dead CTBTO staff member with the Iran talks are baseless and untrue."

Leaving aside that it seems the only thing which is baseless and untrue is whether or not Mr Hampton was involved in the Iran talks, we refused to make any changes based on a single e-mail without the opportunity to ask further questions and requested an interview by e-mail - and on Tuesday morning we were given an interview slot.

In this conversation the spokesperson claimed that yes, the CTBTO and the IAEA are nothing to do with each other.

The spokesperson - not named for legal reasons - said: "The article was wrong because the CTBTO has nothing to do with the Iran talks. Just as the dead staff member had nothing to do with the Iran talks.

"The CTBTO is responsible for ensuring that no nuclear explosions will go undetected . . . . while the IAEA is responsible for nuclear issues for peaceful purposes. There is no crossover at all. They are nothing to do with each other.

"They have totally separate mandates. We do not cooperate."

However - whatever is claimed both organisations are based within the same complex. The IAEA occupies A and B buildings while the CTBTO is in E building. It is a fact that regardless of the fact that both organisations may have different mandates, they are covering the same subject matter. And it is a fact that Mr Hampton would have been working on the question on whether Iran was involved in illegal nuclear testing - regardless of whether he was sitting at the talks or not.

In fact Mr Hampton's title - processing engineer - meant he was "part of the team maintaining and operating the International Data Centre Division application software to generate and distribute data products and services to CTBTOs 182 Member States" which in English meant he was responsible for monitoring a vast array of technical data from hundreds of monitoring stations around the world in the hope of discovering any illegal nuclear activity.

Although the CTBTO press office was reluctant to admit it -- claiming that he would not have had any idea where geographically the information came from -- Mr Hampton would have been getting statistics from Iran along with the rest of the world and therefore at least with this connection alone could be linked in with anything involving Iran. Of the 300 plus monitoring stations set up globally there are at least two in the geographical area of Iran sending data back to Vienna.

And it is also a fact that although everyone else at the Vienna International Centre is talking about the fact that there have now been two suicides in similar circumstances at the complex - the only people that claim to know nothing about either are the Vienna press offices of the CTBTO and the IAEA.

Police confirmed today that the first death was a suspected suicide although even now some months later there is apparently no confirmed decision.

The CTBTO spokesperson when pressed confirmed there had been a death but declined to comment as the employee was not a CTBTO worker. They advised that all questions about the dead man be passed on to the IAEA. For their part IAEA when contacted claimed to know little about it - although it is understood the first man to die was an employee of the IAEA as the CTBTO hinted.

Asked if there was any information that they ever took from the CTBTO they repeatedly refused to answer, saying only that the question on what data they shared should be addressed to the CTBTO - as only the CTBTO was able to answer whether they provided the IAEA with any information - and whether there was any crossover.

And now we come down to the bottom line. It is not the business of this newspaper or its journalistic team to draw any conclusions from the facts we have manage to establish. However neither the CTBTO or the IAEA have been able to answer any of the questions we have raised, the most pressing of which are as follows:

* Why are both the CTBTO and the IAEA trying so hard to deny all knowledge about the early death and attempting to keep it a secret. If there really is nothing suspicious why not put all the information on the table. Did the earlier death really involve an IAEA staff member, what was his job, under what circumstances did he die, if a suicide was there a suicide note?

* Why is it that both organisations in the same complex and intensively involved with the question of nuclear weapons apparently have "absolutely nothing" to do with each other and if so why not? Surely there must be many areas where they can support each other and both benefit?

* If Mr Hampton was involved in gathering data on illegal nuclear activity in Iran as well as other countries, if this information was not being shared with the IAEA on the eve of talks with Iran then why not?

As the author of the media insider column I have known many press officers at the United Nations in Vienna and I have a lot of sympathy with their position - many have excellent journalistic credentials but they for the most part have little opportunity to deal with the media as they would like. Most have so many restrictions from above that one wonders if the requirements of the job is an ability to say no comment in as many different languages as possible, or sending out press releases so re-written and edited they are effectively useless for any journalistic work.

What those that employ them need to remember is that it is the job of credible journalists to question, and then to question the answers, and to raise fresh questions - just as it is the right of those in the spotlight to decline to answer.

However, if the results of any journalistic efforts are then not to their liking, with respect - they can only have themselves to blame.

Austrian Times

Write your comment to this article here

CTBTO Staff Member wrote on 17. 11. 2009 from Vienna

As a staff member at CTBTO I would like to correct some of the blatant misconceptions that this article (and the others you have published) is labouring under. The CTBTO spokesperson is right Â� there is no co-operation between CTBTO and the IAEA. Nor can there be, because they work in completely separate fields. No, there are no "areas where they can support each other and both benefit". Furthermore, Mr Hampton was not, as you persist in writing, "involved in monitoring illegal nuclear tests by Iran and North Korea". His job was to analyse various kinds of technical data being sent to Vienna all the time from the 300-odd monitoring stations CTBTO has installed all over the world. Neither he nor anyone else at CTBTO would be targeting those particular countries.

Reply
Rosy wrote on 08. 11. 2009 from CA

Maybe Timothy was gathering facts on Israel for all we know. They have over 200 Nuclear Bombs. In spite of UN Resolution they refuse to allow inspectors in where as Iran has had over 25 inspections. If it were proven as absolute fact Israel has a Nuclear arsenal then the US would have to cut their funding. Which is almost 3 billion a year. Vannue told the Times about their Nuclear Weapons. Since J F Kennedy was in power there have never been any real inspections of their facilities.

Reply
Brett Bayly wrote on 28. 10. 2009 from Vienna

I am not entering the debate about whether the CTBTO is right or wrong in its dealings with the media over this tragedy. However, as an ex journalist I do take exception to a journalist defending his/her role in the first person in a sanctimonious manner without publishing their name.

Reply

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Baseless Iran suicides Vienna IAEA Untrue based Hampton data death police journalistic staff article nuclear circumstances CTBTO International talks subject

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Tag cloud: Baseless Iran suicides Vienna IAEA Untrue based Hampton data death police journalistic staff article nuclear circumstances CTBTO International talks subject

Tag cloud:
Baseless Iran suicides Vienna IAEA Untrue based Hampton data death police journalistic staff article nuclear circumstances CTBTO International talks subject