The Principle Decision on Persons Excluded from the Minimum Staff in Turkey

The Details of the Decision

The Subject of the Decision

The application of 24 January 2005 by the Çağdaş Marmaris newspaper published in the district of Marmaris in the province of Muğla, concerning the application of the provisions on the intellectual workers in the minimum staff of General Assembly Decision No. 67 of 15 February 1977 taken by the General Assembly of the Press Advertisement Agency, was examined under Articles 30 and 38 of Law No. 195 and a principle decision was reached.

The Text of the Decision

“Where the holder of the concession and/or the publisher of newspapers that hold the right to publish official announcements or that wish to acquire that right is a legal person, the partners of general partnerships, the active and limited partners of ordinary limited partnerships, the partners of limited liability companies, the active partners of partnerships limited by shares, the partners of shipping partnerships, and the founding partners and the partners who are members of the board of directors of joint stock companies, among those legal persons, are accepted under Article 24 of Law No. 1479 as being among those regarded as insured under that Law, and therefore persons having those qualities may not appear in the minimum intellectual worker staff of newspapers concerned with the publication of official announcements.”

The Types of Company Covered

The Counterpart in the Regulation in Force — Art. 20/1

The same prohibition is today governed more broadly in Article 20 of the Official Announcements and Advertisements Regulation. The holder of the concession or the representative of the legal person and the following persons may not appear in the intellectual worker staffs of publications belonging to themselves or to others:

The Other Prohibitions in the Regulation — Arts. 20/2 and 20/3

Art. 20/2: the mother, father, spouse, natural and step children, adopted child and the parents of the spouse of the owner and of the members of the management or supervisory organs of legal persons may not appear in the staff. Exception: those who satisfy the graduation condition in Art. 19/1-a and those who hold a press card as intellectual workers.

Art. 20/3 (Added: Official Gazette 6/3/2024-32481): those who are students in daytime education and in second education in another province (open and distance education excepted), those called up for military service and those on unpaid leave may not appear in the intellectual worker staffs.

We covered the detail in who may not be counted in the minimum staff and in whether an owner may appear on their own newspaper payroll.

The Transitional Exception — Regulation Provisional Art. 1

The provision of the second paragraph of Article 20 of this Regulation is not applied, as regards spouses, to intellectual workers notified to the Agency over İLANBİS before 1/1/2023.

Conclusion

General Assembly Principle Decision No. 171 of 25.05.2005 held that, in newspapers whose holder of the concession or publisher is a legal person, the partners of general partnerships, the active and limited partners of ordinary limited partnerships, the partners of limited liability companies, the active partners of partnerships limited by shares, the partners of shipping partnerships and the founding partners and the partners who are members of the board of directors of joint stock companies may not appear in the minimum intellectual worker staff, because they are regarded as insured under Law No. 1479.