The period is ten days and it runs from notification. Article 25/2: “Private media service providers shall be obliged to deliver a copy of the broadcast recording requested to the Supreme Council within ten days of notification of the letter concerning it, where the Supreme Council so requests.”
The clock starts on service, not on reading
The ten days begin on the day the letter is served, not the day you find the recording or open the message. Under Article 32/10 RTUK decisions are served on the registered electronic mail (KEP) address notified by the undertaking; Article 47/1 refers to Notification Law No. 7201 for service. An undertaking that does not check its KEP inbox daily consumes half the period without knowing.
| Obligation | Period | Owed by | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Keeping the recording | 1 year | Undertaking | Art. 25/1 |
| Delivering a copy to RTUK | 10 days from notification | Undertaking | Art. 25/2 |
| Keeping a recording under investigation | Until written notice | Undertaking | Art. 25/3 |
| Copy to a third party | Written application and fee within one year | RTUK | Art. 25/1 |
The sanction is criminal, not administrative
This is not a duty settled with an administrative fine. Article 33/3: “The responsible editor of a private media service provider who fails to retain broadcast recordings for one year in accordance with Article 25, or who fails to deliver them within the period and faithful to the original despite a request by the Supreme Council or by the public prosecutor, shall be punished with a judicial fine of one thousand to five thousand days.”
An incomplete or altered recording is worse
Article 33/4 creates a separate and higher penalty: where the recordings supplied “are not the broadcast requested in terms of content, or where alteration, excision or deletion has been carried out on them”, the responsible editor is punished with a judicial fine of five thousand to ten thousand days.
| Act | Judicial fine | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Failing to keep the recording for one year | 1,000 – 5,000 days | Art. 33/3 |
| Failing to deliver within the period | 1,000 – 5,000 days | Art. 33/3 |
| Failing to deliver faithful to the original | 1,000 – 5,000 days | Art. 33/3 |
| Supplying a recording that is not the broadcast requested | 5,000 – 10,000 days | Art. 33/4 |
| Alteration, excision or deletion in the recording | 5,000 – 10,000 days | Art. 33/4 |
What it takes to meet ten days
Ten days is comfortable for an undertaking with an orderly archive and impossible for one without. The request usually specifies a date and a time range.
- Continuous time-stamped recording. Keep the archive by output stream, not by programme; requests come as “this date, this time range”.
- A searchable index. It must be findable within minutes from channel, date and time.
- An integrity record. Being able to show the copy is identical to the original is the only defence against Article 33/4.
- A named owner. Decide in advance who answers a request; in most undertakings the first days go on deciding who will handle it.
- A delivery record. Document what was sent, when and by what means.
A request usually opens a supervision file
A recording request is generally the start of a supervision process. RTUK is charged under Article 37/1(e) with monitoring and supervising broadcasts and under Article 37/1(g) with installing the necessary monitoring and recording systems. The recording you send forms the evidential basis of any sanction under Article 32. Verifying before dispatch that it covers the requested range in full avoids a later argument about incompleteness.
Retention periods are in the one-year guide and the fine calculation in the calculation guide.