"The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has not taken effect, as eight nations have not ratified it. I urge you to promptly resolve the factual error and make clear that the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has not taken effect."
August 30, 2023
To:
Edith M. Lederer, Journalist, Associated Press
Josef Federman, News Director, Associated Press
Dan Taylor, Managing Editor, CTV News
Dear Ms. Lederer, Mr. Federman, and Mr. Taylor,
I'm writing on behalf of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME, https://www.cjpme.org) to alert you to a factual error in the AP article, “UN chief warns that rise in global distrust and improvements in nukes are 'recipe for annihilation,'” published by CTV News on August 29.
The paragraph in question reads:
“The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has 196 member states -- 186 have signed it and 178 have ratified it, including eight in the last 18 months. But the pact has taken effect because it needs ratification by the eight nations that had nuclear power reactors or research reactors when the U.N. General Assembly adopted the treaty in 1996” (emphasis added).
The Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has not taken effect, as eight nations have not ratified it.
I urge you to promptly resolve the factual error and make clear that the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty has not taken effect.
By way of context, it is also important that concerns about the danger of nuclear weapons in the Middle East be covered accurately. The principal barriers to the establishment of the Middle East as a Nuclear-Weapons-Free Zone (NWFZ) have been Israeli and United States policy, with (1) Israel defending its status as a non-declared nuclear power and (2) the United States both facilitating Israel's nuclear role and maintaining its own freedom to deploy nuclear weapons to U.S. military positions in the region. Iran, on the hand, proposed the Middle East NWFZ in 1974 and the country’s leadership has repeatedly promoted the idea in the decades since. To the extent that your coverage deals more squarely with the Middle East this will be important context to include.
I encourage you to add this important context about the US, Israel, and Iran, as it gives essential insights into the logic of some of the eight members failure who are yet to ratify the Treaty.
Please feel free to contact me at 438-380-5410 for more information or additional comment.
Sincerely,
Jason Toney
Director of Media Advocacy, Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East