An outdated information report in regards to the head of the Worldwide Atomic Vitality Company (IAEA) visiting Pakistan, a nuclear-armed nation of 240 million folks, has resurfaced in deceptive on-line posts. The video of IAEA Director Common Rafael Mariano Grossi — which featured a “breaking information” banner — was initially broadcast by a neighborhood information outlet in 2023. In response to the posts, Pakistan’s overseas ministry stated he didn’t go to the South Asian nation in March 2024.
“Director Common Rafael Mariano Grossi of the IAEA visited Pakistan, discussing nuclear cooperation and local weather change mitigation,” learn a caption alongside this video on Fb printed on March 15, 2024.
That includes a brand for native information outlet GNN, the “breaking information” report exhibits the pinnacle of the UN nuclear company shaking arms with former overseas minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari.
The submit continued: “Conferences with prime officers targeted on enhancing collaboration in peaceable nuclear know-how. Grossi inaugurated numerous nuclear amenities and designated Pakistan as an IAEA Regional Heart for most cancers therapy.
“Highlighting nuclear power’s position in combating local weather change, his go to concluded with a dinner hosted by the Overseas Secretary.”
The video was additionally shared elsewhere on Fb right here, right here and right here
An analogous deceptive declare was shared on social media platform XÂ right here and right here.
In response to the deceptive posts, Pakistan’s Overseas Affairs Ministry rebuffed strategies Grossi visited the nation in March this 12 months.
“Any tales concerning the go to of a high-level IAEA delegation to Pakistan are pretend information,” the ministry stated in a press release on March 15, 2024 (archived hyperlink).
“No official from IAEA is at present visiting Pakistan, nor are any coverage talks deliberate within the close to future with IAEA. Director Common IAEA visited Pakistan in February 2023.”
Previous information clip
A key phrase search on YouTube discovered the video shared within the posts was initially printed right here on GNN’s official channel on February 15, 2023 (archived hyperlink).
Its caption stated: “FM Bilawal Bhutto Meets DG (IAEA) Rafael Mariano Grossi | Breaking Information | GNN”.
When Grossi visited Pakistan, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari was head of the South Asian nation’s overseas ministry.
Beneath is a screenshot comparability of the video in one of many deceptive posts (left) and the video printed by GNN in 2023 (proper):
In response to the IAEA, Grossi mentioned with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif how nuclear science might assist mitigate the worsening results of local weather change in Pakistan. He additionally visited nuclear amenities throughout the nation, the company stated in a press launch on February 16, 2023 (archived hyperlink).
Grossi was in Japan the week of March 2024 when the deceptive posts circulated, assembly with numerous leaders in regards to the discharge of handled water from the stricken Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Energy Plant, in response to this IAEA report (archived hyperlink).
Shortly after the deceptive posts circulated on-line, Pakistan’s overseas minister Ishaq Dar — who has held the place since March 11, 2024 — met with Grossi on the sidelines of the Nuclear Vitality Summit in Brussels, the Related Press of Pakistan reported (archived hyperlinks right here and right here).
