Press Law No. 5187 imposes no general requirement about where a newspaper is printed. But the press card and official announcement regimes require printing house printing as an express condition. So the question is not "is it lawful" but "which rights do you want to benefit from".
The Press Card Side: An Express Condition
When Art. 15 of the Press Card Regulation lists the conditions for newspapers and magazines whose staff may be issued press cards, subparagraph (f) requires: that it has not been reproduced by methods other than a printing house.
The same article sets a further printing condition in subparagraph (c): that the total area of advertisements, announcements, pictures of the same nature, ready-made blocks and side margins does not exceed one third of the surface area, and that each page is reset and laid out afresh before printing.
The Official Announcement Side: The Definition of a Periodical
Art. 5 of Press Advertising Agency General Assembly Decision No. 67 of 15 February 1977 defines a periodical. That definition is reproduced verbatim in Principle Decision No. 176 of 11/08/2006:
"Daily or non-daily newspapers issued under the provisions of the Press Law and printed at printing houses that have filed a declaration under the Printing Houses Law, together with magazines published at particular intervals, count as periodicals under this decision. Printed matter of any kind that is printed on proofing presses or duplicating machines, reproduced on photocopiers and computer printers, or published at intervals and in fascicles like encyclopaedias and lacking topicality, cannot be treated as a newspaper or magazine, whatever it is called."
| Printing method | Counts as a periodical? |
|---|---|
| Printing at a printing house that has filed a declaration under the Printing Houses Law | Yes |
| A proofing press | No |
| A duplicating machine | No |
| A photocopier | No |
| A computer printer | No |
When Does a Workplace Count as a Printing House?
Principle Decision No. 176 explains this too. For a workplace and/or facility to count as a printing house:
- A declaration must have been filed with the relevant authority under Printing Houses Law No. 5681
- There must be machines requiring the pre-press preparation of the works to be printed
- There must be machines generally accepted in the sector as printing house presses
- There must be auxiliary machines related to printing
The decision also states what the declaration contains: specifying the types, number and printing dimensions of the typesetting, printing and other equipment at the printing house, and in which languages and with which printing system it will operate, is one of the mandatory provisions of Law No. 5681.
Why So Strict?
Decision No. 176 states its reason expressly: in line with its founding purpose, the Press Advertising Agency has aimed for official announcements to be given to periodicals printed by settled, institutionalised enterprises.
The Position for Internet News Sites
The printing condition is, by its nature, for print publications. The Press Card Regulation governs internet news sites in a separate article and no printing house condition is sought there. We deal with the news site side in what counts as an internet news site.
Summary
- The Press Law imposes no general printing house requirement.
- But Art. 15/f of the Press Card Regulation requires that the publication has not been reproduced by methods other than a printing house.
- Art. 5 of Agency Decision No. 67 requires printing at a printing house that has filed a declaration under the Printing Houses Law for a publication to count as a periodical.
- Printed matter reproduced by duplicator, photocopier or computer printer is not a newspaper or magazine, whatever it is called.