Is Quoting News From Another Website Free in Turkey?

What the statute answers: FSEK Article 36, first paragraph

FSEK Article 36 is headed "Contents of newspapers" and is the backbone of news quotation. The first paragraph reads:

FSEK Article 36 — Contents of newspapers (first paragraph)

"Without prejudice to the provision of Article 15 of the Press Law, daily
news and reports that have been disseminated to the public by the press or
by radio may be freely quoted."

(Unofficial translation; the Turkish text is authoritative.)

The sentence has three elements. First, what is quoted must be a daily news item or report. Second, it must have been disseminated to the public by the press or by radio — a text that has not yet been published and that you obtained by some other route does not come under this paragraph. Third, the freedom is granted "without prejudice to the provision of Article 15 of the Press Law".

What do "daily news and reports" mean?

The statute does not define the phrase. FSEK contains no separate definition of a news item as a protected work either; Article 36(1) does not characterise news as a work at all, it merely leaves its quotation free. The test therefore has to be drawn from the logic of the article itself: the paragraph frees the communication of a current event to the public. The following typically sit at the core of the paragraph:

• The information that an event has occurred: an accident, a fire, an appointment, a resignation, a statement, an election result, a match score
• Data and figures announced by an official authority — and, separately, FSEK Article 31 already makes use of officially published statutes, Presidential decrees, regulations, communiqués, circulars and judicial decisions entirely free
• Words spoken at a meeting, in court or in parliament — for these, FSEK Article 32 separately permits publication for the purpose of giving news and information
• Notifications of events tied to the daily agenda, whose currency is exhausted within a day

Note carefully: this list is not enumerated in the statute; it is a practical reading drawn from the wording of the article. The law says only "daily news and reports"; whether a particular piece of content falls within that scope is assessed separately in each case.

What falls outside the freedom

What Article 36(1) frees is daily news and reports. Where a text goes beyond news and becomes a production bearing the individual characteristics of its author, it is protected under FSEK Article 2(1) as a "work expressed in language and writing" and cannot be taken freely on the basis of Article 36(1). In practice the typical content falling outside that dividing line is:

• Original analysis and opinion pieces — these are subject not to Article 36(1) but to the regime for articles and columns in Article 36(2)
• Interview texts: the framing and selection of the questions and the arrangement of the text bear the reporter's individual characteristics
• Investigative files, long-form examinations, data journalism projects
• News photographs and news video: a photograph may be a work under FSEK Article 4(5) or Article 2(3); even where it is not treated as a work, under Article 84(3) the person who made the fixation may prohibit its reproduction, and the unfair competition provisions apply
• A newspaper's archive compilation, chronology or database — this may be an adaptation or a compilation work within the meaning of FSEK Article 6(7) and Article 6(11)

This distinction is critical, because the statute sets up an entirely separate regime for opinion columns and articles. You will find the detail of when permission is required and what the phrase "the right of quotation is reserved" actually does in our article devoted to quoting opinion columns.

The difference between the bare fact of a news event and the text that reports it

This is where the greatest confusion arises in the field. The sentence "news is free" does not mean that the text reporting that news is free too. What is free is the event itself; the sentences in which the event is recounted are subject to a separate assessment. You can frame the difference as follows:

The statute contains no provision saying "you may take this many words". The measure is qualitative, not numerical. We explain point by point what those qualitative tests are and how they are applied in practice in our article on how much text may be used in a quotation.

The limit on the freedom: the duty to credit under Article 36(3)

While Article 36 leaves quotation free, it imposes an obligation in return. The third paragraph reads:

FSEK Article 36 — third paragraph

"In all these cases it is necessary to state the name of the newspaper,
periodical or news agency quoted and, where these in turn have taken the
material from another source, the name of that source, together with the
date and issue number, and in addition the name, pen name or sign of the
authors of the articles."

(Unofficial translation.)

The phrase "in all these cases" covers the news quotation in the first paragraph as well. In other words, news quotation is free but it is not uncredited. The paragraph enumerates the following elements:

• The name of the newspaper, periodical or news agency quoted
• If the content was itself taken from another source, the name of that original source
• The date and issue number
• The name, pen name or sign of the author of the article

We set out how these four elements are met in online news publishing, together with copy-and-paste source-line templates, in our article on how to cite sources in news.

Its relationship with Article 24 of Press Law No. 5187

FSEK is not the only layer. Article 24 of Press Law No. 5187 ("the Press Law") sets up a separate sanctions regime under the heading "Republication" and penalises two distinct acts:

• Republishing news, texts and pictures that have appeared in a periodical without crediting the source (Press Law Article 24(1))
• Republishing such content without the permission of the owner of the periodical, even though the right of republication has been reserved (Press Law Article 24(2))

A caveat about the reference to "Article 15 of the Press Law" in Article 36

FSEK Article 36(1) grants the freedom "without prejudice to the provision of Article 15 of the Press Law". However, in the text of FSEK this cross-reference has not been updated to Press Law No. 5187, the statute now in force; elsewhere FSEK's own text (Article 7, final paragraph) uses the phrase "Press Law No. 5680" — the 1950 Press Law, since repealed — while Article 83(4) refers to "Article 14 of the Press Law". Article 15 of Law No. 5187 as currently in force, for its part, governs the penalty for failing to display the mandatory particulars (the imprint).

A practical decision flow

If you want a sequence you can apply at the desk, the flow below rests solely on the provisions quoted above:

1) Has the content been disseminated to the public by the press or radio?
   NO  -> Article 36(1) does not apply. Permission is required
          (FSEK Articles 20-25; written permission under Article 52).
   YES -> continue.

2) Is the content a "daily news item or report"?
   YES -> Article 36(1): free quotation + crediting under Article 36(3)
          is MANDATORY.
   NO  -> continue.

3) Is it an article or column on a social, political or economic
   question of the day?
   YES -> the Article 36(2) regime:
          - if the right of quotation is NOT expressly reserved: it may be
            taken as it stands or in adapted form
          - if it IS reserved: it may be taken only in the form of an
            abridged press summary
          in both cases crediting under Article 36(3) is MANDATORY.
   NO  -> continue.

4) Is a fragment of a work (sound/image) being taken in connection with
   a current event?
   YES -> Article 37: it must be in the nature of news + must not exceed
          the scope of information + must not harm the rightholder's
          interests or conflict with normal exploitation of the work.
   NO  -> no exemption: WRITTEN permission complying with FSEK Article 52
          is required.

Three mistakes made routinely in the field

• "I linked to it, that's enough." Article 36(3) asks for more than a link: it requires the name of the newspaper, periodical or agency, the original source if there is one, the date and issue number, and the author's name or pen name.
• "I credited the source, so now I can take anything." Crediting the source does not make a use that is not free become free. This is the most widely misunderstood point in the series.
• "I took the photograph along with the story." Article 36(1) governs the quotation of text; photographs and video require a separate assessment (Articles 4(5), 2(3), 84(3) and 37).

With agency copy the picture is somewhat more complicated, because alongside the FSEK freedom there is also a subscription contract; we separate those two layers in our article examining the unauthorised publication of agency copy. For newsrooms that want to keep the source line, the imprint fields and republication records inside the publishing workflow itself, embedding these fields in the template on the news publishing software side is the most practical solution.