Sources of Turkish Media Law: Where to Find the Official Texts

Why the official source: three traps of secondary sources

The text of a law you see on a legal website, in a news report or in a forum answer is usually the text as it stood at the moment it was posted; it has not been updated since. In Turkish press law this has three concrete consequences:

• Repealed provisions stay in circulation. A paragraph that has been repealed can be quoted in secondary sources for years as though it were still in force. For example, various articles of Law No. 5953 were repealed by Laws No. 274, 506, 1475 and 4857; in older copies of the Law those articles still appear in full.
• Constitutional Court annulments are not reflected. Subparagraph (a) of Article 49 of Law No. 195 was annulled by a decision of the Constitutional Court and ceased to have effect on 13/10/2025; an article relying on the pre-annulment text describes a sanction that no longer exists.
• Institution and office names change while the text does not. By Decree-Law No. 703 of 2/7/2018, the words 'Council of Ministers' were replaced by 'President' and the word 'bylaw' (tüzük) by 'Presidential Decree' in many laws. Older texts keep the old wording and can send you to the wrong authority.

1. Legislative texts

mevzuat.gov.tr URL patterns

SEARCH URL PATTERN
  mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=<no>&MevzuatTur=<type>&MevzuatTertip=5

TYPE CODES
  1  = Law (Kanun)
  7  = Presidential Decree (Cumhurbaskanligi Kararnamesi)
  21 = Presidential Regulation (Cumhurbaskanligi Yonetmeligi)

DIRECT PDF PATTERN
  mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/<type>.<tertip>.<no>.pdf

EXAMPLES
  1.5.5187.pdf   -> Press Law No. 5187
  1.3.5953.pdf   -> Press Labour Act No. 5953
  21.5.7051.pdf  -> Press Card Regulation (Presidential Decision 7051)

  mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=5187&MevzuatTur=1&MevzuatTertip=5
  mevzuat.gov.tr/mevzuat?MevzuatNo=7051&MevzuatTur=21&MevzuatTertip=5

How to find the version of a law that is in force

The legislation system offers two different texts for any given law, and confusing them is the most common mistake:

The consolidated text carries traces of amendment in two places. The first is the footnotes beneath each article: a note such as '(Değişik: 13/10/2022 - 7418/22 md.)' — 'amended by Article 22 of Law No. 7418 of 13/10/2022' — tells you which article of which law changed that paragraph and when. The second is the table of amendments at the end of the text: 'List Showing the Entry into Force Dates of the Laws Adding to and Amending [this Law]'. Constitutional Court annulments appear in the same list and in the footnotes — for instance, against subparagraph (a) of Article 49 of Law No. 195 you will find '(İptal: Anayasa Mahkemesinin 17/6/2025 tarihli ve E.: 2023/168, K.: 2025/132 sayılı Kararı ile)', i.e. annulled by the Constitutional Court's decision of 17/6/2025, case no. E. 2023/168, decision no. K. 2025/132.

THE ORDER IN WHICH TO VERIFY A PROVISION

  1. Open the law in its consolidated text (mevzuat.gov.tr)
  2. Find the relevant article and read its FULL text
  3. Read the FOOTNOTE beneath the article and the paragraph
     -> "(Degisik: <date> - <law no>/<article> md.)"  = amended
     -> "(Ek: ...)" added, "(Mulga: ...)" repealed,
        "(Iptal: Anayasa Mahkemesinin ...)" annulled by the
        Constitutional Court
  4. Check the date of the last amendment in the amendment table
     at the end of the text
  5. If the last amendment is recent, open that law in the Official
     Gazette and read its entry-into-force article (some articles take
     effect retroactively or on a future date)

2. The Official Gazette

The consolidated text gives you the provision as it stands today; the Official Gazette (Resmî Gazete) is the primary source showing how the provision got there, by which law it was changed and on what reasoning. The archive goes back to 1921.

OFFICIAL GAZETTE URL PATTERNS  (resmigazete.gov.tr)

  Index for a day    /eskiler/YYYY/MM/YYYYMMDD.htm
  A single text      /eskiler/YYYY/MM/YYYYMMDD-N.htm  (N = position in index)
  By date            /fihrist?tarih=YYYY-MM-DD
  Short form         /DD.MM.YYYY

EXAMPLES
  /eskiler/2026/07/20260701.htm     -> index for 1 July 2026
  /eskiler/2026/07/20260701-1.htm   -> 1st text of that day (Law No. 7587)
  /eskiler/2026/01/20260129-1.htm   -> 29 January 2026, Law No. 7573

The logic of use is this: if you have a date and issue number (for example 'Official Gazette 25/12/2025 – 33118'), go straight to that day's index and find the text by its heading. If all you have is a law number, first find the law's Official Gazette date on mevzuat.gov.tr, then go to the index.

3. Court decisions

How to search for a Constitutional Court decision by case and decision number

STRUCTURE OF THE NUMBERS
  E.<year>/<no>  = case number     (year the application was registered)
  K.<year>/<no>  = decision number (year the decision was given)

  Example: E.2023/168, K.2025/132
           action brought in 2023, decided in 2025

NORM REVIEW DECISION PDF PATTERNS
  normkararlarbilgibankasi.anayasa.gov.tr
    /Dosyalar/Kararlar/KararPDF/K.YYYY-NNN.nrm.pdf
    /Dosyalar/Kararlar/KararPDF/YYYY-NNN-nrm.pdf

  Application petition:
    /Dosyalar/Kararlar/DilekcePDF/YYYY-NNN-nrmd.pdf

DECISIONS FREQUENTLY CITED IN PRESS LAW
  E.2023/168, K.2025/132  -> annulment of Art. 49(a) of Law No. 195
                             (Official Gazette 13/10/2025)
  E.2021/62,  K.2023/89   -> annulment of the severance pay conditions
                             in Art. 6 of Law No. 5953
  E.2022/129, K.2023/189  -> request to annul Art. 217/A of the Turkish
                             Penal Code was REJECTED
  E.2004/81,  K.2008/48   -> annulment of part of Art. 9(2) of Law No. 5187

The date on which a decision is published in the Official Gazette and the date of the decision are different, and the moment an annulment takes effect is generally the date of publication in the Official Gazette. Note both dates; in a dispute about past events, this distinction determines which text applies.

4. Regulatory and implementing bodies

On the BİK side, two patterns will serve you: corporate announcements are at bik.gov.tr/kurumsal-haberler/..., and tariff and document PDFs are at bik.gov.tr/storage/YYYY/MM/...pdf. To compile the tariff archive year by year you need to use these two patterns together with the Official Gazette index; İLANBİS offers no historical archive. You can find the compiled version in our official advertisement rate archive.

5. The legislative process

If you want to follow an amendment before it reaches the Official Gazette, the source is the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM), the Turkish parliament. This is particularly valuable for learning that a bill affecting your sector is at committee stage.

The legislation this series rests on, with official references

The table below gives the official reference for the core legislation on which the articles in the series are based. When you want to verify a provision, search for it on mevzuat.gov.tr by its law number and confirm the reference from this table.

A practical verification routine

You have a claim in front of you: 'Article X says Y.' The five steps below let you verify it in fifteen minutes.

1) WHICH INSTRUMENT?
   Is the claim about a law, a regulation or a presidential decision?
   If you have no number, identify it first by subject matter.

2) OPEN THE CONSOLIDATED TEXT
   mevzuat.gov.tr -> search by number -> find the relevant article

3) READ THE FOOTNOTE
   The notes beneath the article/paragraph -- (Degisik: ...) amended,
   (Ek: ...) added, (Mulga: ...) repealed, (Iptal: ...) annulled --
   give you the history of the provision

4) CONFIRM THE LAST AMENDMENT IN THE OFFICIAL GAZETTE
   resmigazete.gov.tr -> index for the relevant date -> open the
   amending law -> read the relevant article AND the ENTRY-INTO-FORCE
   article

5) HAS IT BEEN ANNULLED?
   normkararlarbilgibankasi.anayasa.gov.tr -> search by case/decision no.
   If there is an annulment, note the decision's OFFICIAL GAZETTE date

RESULT: You now have (a) the text in force, (b) the reference for the
        last amendment, (c) the reference for any annulment decision.
        State all three in your own text.

Which article in the series covers what

This is the reference article of the series; the articles below deal with individual topics. If you do not know which body of legislation to consult for a given verification, start with our article on which law applies to which type of publication; if you are looking for the exact meaning of a term, see the glossary of Turkish press law.

• If you want to know when a provision arrived and by which law: the timeline of Turkish press law.
• If you want an overview of what has changed in the last eighteen months: what changed in press law this year.
• For official advertisement unit prices and typesetting rules: the official advertisement rate archive.
• For the press card process and the Commission calendar: the Press Card Commission meeting calendar.

Summary

• For the text of a law in force use mevzuat.gov.tr; for the amendment itself and its entry-into-force article use resmigazete.gov.tr.
• Type codes on mevzuat.gov.tr: 1 = Law, 7 = Presidential Decree, 21 = Presidential Regulation.
• In the consolidated text, the footnotes and the amendment table at the end give the provision's history; read both.
• Norm review decisions and individual application decisions are in two separate Constitutional Court databases; search in the right one.
• The working address of the RTÜK legislation page is rtuk.gov.tr/mevzuat_56.
• The official authority for press card matters is the Directorate of Communications; the addresses are iletisim.gov.tr and bks.iletisim.gov.tr.
• Official advertisement legislation and tariffs are on bik.gov.tr, and the per-publication tariff query is on İLANBİS; for a historical tariff archive use the Official Gazette.