How Many Days Does a Freedom of Information Request Take in Turkey?

The short answer: 15 business days, exceptionally 30 business days

Article 11(1) of Act No. 4982 reads: “Institutions and organisations shall provide access to the information or document requested within fifteen business days of the application. However, where the information or document requested must be obtained from another unit within the institution or organisation applied to; where the opinion of another institution or organisation must be obtained in relation to the application; or where the content of the application concerns more than one institution or organisation, access to the information or document shall be provided within thirty business days. In that case, the extension of the period and the grounds for it shall be notified to the applicant in writing and before the expiry of the fifteen business days.” The same provision is repeated in Article 20 of the Regulation on the Principles and Procedures for the Implementation of the Right to Information Act. In other words, the 30 business days are not at the institution’s discretion; they apply only where one of the three situations listed in the Act actually exists and the extension has been notified in advance with reasons.

Business days or calendar days — the legislation uses both

This is the point at which most mistakes are made in practice under Act No. 4982. The legislature wrote the access and payment periods as business days and the appeal and deemed refusal periods as plain days. Between “fifteen days” and “fifteen business days” there is close to a week’s difference in the calendar, because of weekends and public holidays; on appeal, that difference is fatal to the right.

Exactly when does time start to run

Time starts not on the day you write or send the petition but on the day the application reaches the institution. The Regulation deals with this channel by channel.

• Written application by hand or by post: “The date on which the application reaches the institution or organisation is the date of application” (Reg. Art. 9(7)). Petitions may also be sent by post (Reg. Art. 9(8)).
• Electronic mail: “the date on which the application form reaches the electronic mail address of the information unit of the institution or organisation is the date of application” (Reg. Art. 10(5)). It must reach the address of the information unit, not the institution’s general address.
• Fax: “The date on which a petition arriving by fax reaches the information units of institutions and organisations is the date of application” (Reg. Art. 10, final para.).
• You applied to the wrong institution and the file was forwarded: “the application is deemed to have been made on the date the forwarded application was received by the institution or organisation holding the information or document. The earlier application is not taken into account for the start of the periods” (Reg. Art. 17(2)). In other words, the clock resets.
• If your request is unclear: the institution may ask for further information, and time runs “from the date on which the deficiencies indicated are fully remedied” (Reg. Art. 16(2)). A vaguely drafted petition puts the timetable in the institution’s hands.
• The only document proving the start is the receipt: after registering the correspondence, information units issue “a receipt showing the date and number of the application” (Reg. Art. 14(1)). Always ask for it when applying in person, and keep the transmission record for email.

In which three situations do the 30 business days apply

Article 11(1) of Act No. 4982 confines the extended period to three situations. The 30 business days cannot be used on any other ground. Where an opinion is sought, Article 17(4) of the Regulation adds a further limit: “The institution or organisation asked for an opinion may not be given less than five business days in which to give it.” The same paragraph provides that the officials of the institution asked for an opinion share the same responsibility as the officials of the institution applied to “as regards answering the person concerned within the period”. If you have not received a written and reasoned extension notice before the fifteen business days expire, the institution does not have thirty business days; treat the period as having expired at fifteen business days and build your appeal timetable accordingly.

• The information or document requested must be obtained from another unit within the institution applied to.
• The opinion of another institution or organisation must be obtained in relation to the application.
• The content of the application concerns more than one institution or organisation.

A fee notice interrupts the period — the trap most often fallen into

Act No. 4982, Article 11(2): “The fifteen business day period is interrupted by the administration notifying the applicant of the amount of the cost required for access to the information or documents referred to in Article 10. If the applicant does not pay the fee within fifteen business days, he is deemed to have withdrawn his request.” Article 22(3) of the Regulation writes this together with a proof requirement: the applicant “shall be deemed to have withdrawn his request if, within fifteen business days of the date the notification was made, he fails to submit the document showing that he has made the payment”. So paying is not enough; you have to submit proof of payment to the institution within the period. We covered the whole fee regime, why the first ten pages are free, and ways of reducing the cost in our analysis of whether requesting a document from a public institution costs money.

Timetable (copy it and keep it on your desktop)

TIMETABLE — FREEDOM OF INFORMATION REQUEST
(Act No. 4982 + Implementing Regulation)

DAY 0    The application REACHES the institution = "date of application"
         - written/post : the date it reaches the institution   (Reg. Art. 9(7))
         - email        : the information unit's address        (Reg. Art. 10(5))
         - fax          : the information unit                  (Reg. Art. 10, final)
         >> Ask for a receipt (Reg. Art. 14(1)). Keep the transmission record.

+2 BUSINESS DAYS (at most)  The information unit forwards the application to
                            the relevant unit          (Reg. Art. 14, final para.)

+15 BUSINESS DAYS (RULE)    Access to the information or document is provided.
                            (Act 4982 Art. 11(1) - Reg. Art. 20(1))

   ... if a written + reasoned extension notice arrives BEFORE the
       15 business days expire:

+30 BUSINESS DAYS (EXCEPTION)  Only in three situations:   (Act 4982 Art. 11(1))
      1) The information is to be obtained from ANOTHER UNIT of the institution
      2) THE OPINION OF ANOTHER INSTITUTION has to be obtained
      3) The application concerns MORE THAN ONE INSTITUTION
      (The institution asked for an opinion gets at least 5 business days
       - Reg. Art. 17(4))

IF A FEE NOTICE ARRIVES
      Date of notice -> the 15 (or 30) business day period is INTERRUPTED
                                                            (Reg. Art. 22(3))
      If PROOF OF PAYMENT is not submitted within 15 BUSINESS DAYS of the
      notice -> YOU ARE DEEMED TO HAVE WITHDRAWN THE REQUEST
                                                        (Act 4982 Art. 11(2))
      The institution must notify the cost within 15 DAYS of the application
      (30 DAYS in the extended case)                       (Reg. Art. 22(2))

IF THE REQUEST IS REFUSED
      Refusal NOTIFIED + 15 DAYS (calendar days) -> appeal to the Board
                                                        (Act 4982 Art. 13(1))
      The Board decides within 30 BUSINESS DAYS          (Act 4982 Art. 13(1))
      An appeal to the Board SUSPENDS the period for going to the
      administrative courts                              (Act 4982 Art. 13(2))

IF NO ANSWER COMES AT ALL (deemed refusal)
      The periods in Reg. Art. 20 expire -> after 60 DAYS the application is
      DEEMED REFUSED   (Reg. Art. 24(2), referring to Art. 10 of Law No. 2577)
      A written appeal may be made to the Board within 15 DAYS of the date on
      which the period for bringing proceedings BEGINS   (Reg. Art. 24(3))

WARNING: mind the difference between "business day" and "day".
         Access and payment periods run in BUSINESS DAYS.
         Appeal and deemed refusal periods run in CALENDAR DAYS.

The form of the answer and the “date of answer”

Act No. 4982, Article 12: “Institutions and organisations shall notify their answers to freedom of information applications to the applicant in writing or by electronic means. Where the application is refused, the grounds for that decision and the avenues of appeal against it shall be stated.” Article 18 of the Regulation makes two critical additions. First: “The date on which the application was answered is the date on the institution’s or organisation’s letter of reply.” Second: “Failure to answer the application within the periods set out in the Act, by reason of the negligence or fault of public officials, does not remove the obligation of institutions and organisations to answer.” The file is not closed simply because time has run; the institution’s obligation continues.

If no answer comes at all: deemed refusal and 60 days

Regulation, Article 24(2): “Where no answer, positive or negative, is given to the applicant by institutions and organisations within the periods set out in Article 20, the application is deemed refused on the expiry of sixty days under Article 10 of the Code of Administrative Procedure No. 2577.” In that case the period for appealing to the Board runs not from notification of a refusal but as “fifteen days from the date on which the period for bringing proceedings begins” (Reg. Art. 24(3)). We set out, step by step, everything to be done after a refusal or a deemed refusal in our article on what to do when a freedom of information request is refused.

Who may apply

Article 4(1) of Act No. 4982 is a single sentence: “Everyone has the right of access to information.” There is no separate regime, privilege or accelerated timetable for journalists; a member of the press is within “everyone” and subject to the general procedure. The definition of applicant covers natural and legal persons (Article 3(b)), so your publishing organisation may also apply as a legal person. For foreign nationals, Article 4(2) imposes three cumulative conditions: “Foreigners resident in Türkiye and foreign legal persons operating in Türkiye shall benefit from the provisions of this Act provided that the information they seek concerns themselves or their field of activity, and within the framework of the principle of reciprocity.” Article 5(2) of the Regulation adds two further points: “Applications within this scope shall be made in Turkish. The countries covered by the principle of reciprocity are announced in the Official Gazette by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” A foreign correspondent’s petition in English may therefore not be processed.

Which institutions are within scope

Act No. 4982, Article 2: “This Act applies to the activities of public institutions and organisations and of professional organisations having the character of a public institution.” The third paragraph, added by Law No. 6495, was annulled by the Constitutional Court’s decision of 4/12/2014, E.2013/114, K.2014/184. Article 2 of the Regulation gives the scope concrete form by listing it: “it applies to the activities of public administrations within the central administration and their subsidiary, related or affiliated organisations; of local administrations excluding villages and their subsidiary and related organisations and their unions or companies; of all public institutions and organisations established with public legal personality under the names of institute, undertaking, enterprise, fund and the like, including the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye and universities; and of professional organisations having the character of a public institution.”

• Ministries, their subsidiary/related/affiliated organisations, and regulatory and supervisory authorities.
• Municipalities, special provincial administrations and municipal companies — the “unions or companies” of local administrations are listed expressly. Villages are outside the scope.
• Universities and the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye.
• Professional organisations having the character of a public institution: bar associations, medical chambers, chambers of commerce and industry and similar bodies.
• A unit to receive applications is mandatory within institutions: “information units shall be established … within the units responsible for the press and public relations” (Reg. Art. 8).

Formal requirements for an application

Act No. 4982, Article 6(1): the application is made to the institution holding the information or document requested, by a petition containing “the applicant’s name and surname, signature, place of residence or business address, or, where the applicant is a legal person, the legal person’s title and address together with the signature and authorisation document of the authorised person”. The same article also permits application by electronic means or other means of communication. Article 6(2): “The information or documents requested shall be clearly stated in the petition.”

• Article 9(3) of the Regulation asks for more detail: the information or documents are to be stated “clearly and in detail”; in addition, “the subject of the information or document requested, its date and number if any, and the unit of the institution or organisation from which it is requested” are to be written.
• For an application by email, a natural person must give name and surname, address and Turkish identity number and complete form ANNEX-1 (Reg. Art. 10(2)). For a legal person, ANNEX-2, the authorised person’s Turkish identity number and an authorisation document are required (Art. 10(3)).
• No Turkish identity number is required for applications sent with an electronic signature under Law No. 5070 (Reg. Art. 10(4)).
• A Turkish identity number must also be given in a fax application; if a reply by fax is wanted, the reply fax number is written in the petition (Reg. Art. 10, final para.).
• There is no requirement that forms be typed or computer-printed, but they must be “legible and comprehensible” (Reg. Art. 9(6)).
• “Applications that are not stated to have been made under another statute are deemed to have been made under the Right to Information Act” (Reg. Art. 9(5)) — do not cite the Petition Act No. 3071 in your petition.

A copy-and-paste application template

The template below is drawn up according to the mandatory elements in Articles 9 and 10 of the Regulation and the fields of form ANNEX-1 annexed to the Regulation. You can also download the form itself from the institution’s website; under Article 6, final paragraph, of the Regulation, forms ANNEX-1 and ANNEX-2 and the email address of the information unit are published on institutions’ websites.

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION APPLICATION
(Act No. 4982 Art. 6 - Implementing Regulation Arts. 9-10 and ANNEX-1)

To the MINISTRY / PRESIDENCY / MUNICIPALITY of ........................
                         (Information Unit)

Applicant's name and surname    :
Place of residence or business address :
Turkish identity number         : (MANDATORY for an electronic application)
Electronic mail address         : (MANDATORY for an electronic application)
Telephone                       :
I wish to receive the reply by  : [ ] In writing   [X] Electronically

INFORMATION OR DOCUMENTS REQUESTED
(Reg. Art. 9(3): the subject, the date and number if any, and the unit from
which it is requested are stated clearly)

1) Subject : ......................................................
   Date    : ../../....        Number : ..................
   Unit    : ......................................................

2) Subject : ......................................................
   Date    : ../../....        Number : ..................
   Unit    : ......................................................

The information or documents I request under the Right to Information Act
No. 4982 are set out above. I request that the necessary action be taken.

NOTES ON THE REQUEST
- My request concerns EXISTING information and documents held by your
  institution or which it ought to hold by virtue of its duties; no
  information is requested that would have to be produced as the result of a
  separate or special study, research, examination or analysis
  (Act 4982 Art. 7).
- If the document requested contains classified parts or parts whose
  disclosure is prohibited, I request that those parts be severed and the
  remainder provided to me, and that the grounds for severance be notified
  to me in writing (Act 4982 Art. 9).
- I would prefer the documents to be sent by email as an ELECTRONIC COPY
  (Reg. Art. 19(1)).
- If a cost of access arises, please notify me of the amount and of where
  payment is to be made, bearing in mind that copies of the first ten pages,
  including the cost of posting, are free of charge (Reg. Art. 22(1)).
- If the period is to be extended because the request falls within one of
  the three situations in Act 4982 Art. 11(1), I request that the extension
  and its grounds be notified IN WRITING before the 15 BUSINESS DAYS expire.

Date      : ../../....
Signature :

(If delivering in person, ask for the RECEIPT showing the date and number
 under Reg. Art. 14(1); if sending by email, keep the transmission record.)

Which applications an institution will not process at all

• Petitions and forms that do not contain the mandatory elements in Article 9 or Article 10 of the Regulation “shall not be processed, and the applicant shall be informed” (Reg. Art. 14(3)).
• Applications in respect of which “it later emerges that a declaration contrary to the truth was made” are not processed, and are treated “as if no application had been made” on that date; “Applications made under a name and surname contrary to the truth shall not be processed” (Reg. Arts. 14(4) and 14(6)). Making a freedom of information application under a pseudonym invalidates the file entirely.
• “Repeat applications made by the same persons on matters already answered, and applications that are abstract and general in nature, shall not be processed” (Reg. Art. 18, final para.).
• Information and documents already published or disclosed to the public by the institution cannot be the subject of an application; but the institution is obliged to state “in what manner, when and where” they were published (Act 4982 Art. 8; Reg. Art. 13).
• Requests for information “of a kind that could be produced as the result of a separate or special study, research, examination or analysis” and requests relating to “a process that has not been completed” may be answered in the negative (Act 4982 Art. 7(2); Reg. Art. 12(2)).
• Information announced in advance as due to be disclosed on a particular date, whose early disclosure would harm the public interest, is not supplied before that date (Reg. Art. 12(3)).

Operational notes for journalists

• Do not write a request in a single petition that touches more than one institution. The “concerns more than one institution” situation extends the period to 30 business days (Act 4982 Art. 11(1)). If you ask the same question of three institutions in three separate petitions, three separate 15-business-day clocks run in parallel.
• Request the document by its date and number (Reg. Art. 9(3)). A formulation such as “all correspondence on this subject” risks both not being processed on grounds of abstractness and having time reset under Reg. Art. 16(2).
• Verify the email address of the institution’s information unit on its official website. Time does not start to run for a form sent to the general contact address (Reg. Art. 10(5)).
• Include the severance request (Act 4982 Art. 9) in the petition from the outset. That way your request for partial access is on the file before the institution can refuse outright on the basis that “the document contains confidential information”.
• Note the date on the letter of reply; that is the date of answer (Reg. Art. 18(4)). Your date of notification, on the other hand, is the start of the 15-day appeal period.
• Article 5(2) of Act No. 4982 is a supremacy rule that is often overlooked: “From the date this Act enters into force, provisions of other statutes contrary to this Act shall not be applied.” If the institution has refused by relying on a confidentiality provision in its own organisational statute, be sure to include this paragraph in your appeal.
• Under Article 30 of Act No. 4982, institutions’ annual freedom of information statistics go to the Board by the end of February each year, the Board’s general report goes to the Grand National Assembly by the end of April, and it is made public within the following two months — those reports are a news source in their own right.

Where a freedom of information request most often gets stuck is whether the document requested really falls within an exemption; we tabulated all the limits in Articles 15 to 28 of Act No. 4982 and the rule on partial access, article by article, in our piece on information outside the scope of the right to information. You can find where to obtain the official texts of the legislation in our guide to sources of Turkish media law, and the equivalents of the technical terms used here in the glossary of Turkish press legislation.