Which Turkish Law Applies to Which Type of Media?

The Problem: There Is No Single Media Act

What determines the rules an organisation is subject to is not the label given to the activity but the medium through which the content is delivered. Saying "I practise journalism" does not tell you which law applies; saying "I publish a printed periodical", "I operate an internet news website" or "I hold a broadcasting licence for television" does. The statutes below make up the framework covered in this article.

• Press Law No. 5187 (9/6/2004, "the Press Law") — the printing and publication of printed works, and internet news websites. Law No. 7418 of 13/10/2022 (the so-called disinformation act) brought internet news websites within its scope and added the press card regime (Additional Articles 1-8) to this statute.
• Broadcasting Law No. 6112 on the Establishment of Radio and Television Enterprises and Their Media Services (15/2/2011, the RTÜK Law) — radio, television and on-demand media services. It repealed the former Law No. 3984 (Article 48(1)).
• Press Labour Act No. 5953 on the Regulation of Relations between Employees and Employers in the Press Profession (13/6/1952) — the employment relationship of a journalist. It applies irrespective of the medium.
• Law No. 195 on the Establishment of the Press Advertising Agency (2/1/1961) — the distribution of official advertisements and announcements; under Article 49, the press ethics principles.
• Law No. 2954 on Turkish Radio and Television — the constitutional set-up and duties of TRT, the Turkish public broadcaster.
• Law No. 1117 on the Protection of Minors from Harmful Publications (21/6/1927) — restricting minors' access to printed publications.

The Decision Tree

The tree below begins with a single question: through which medium do you deliver the content? An organisation may sit on more than one branch at once; where it does, each branch brings its own regime.

THROUGH WHICH MEDIUM DO YOU DELIVER THE CONTENT?
|
+-- PRINTED PERIODICAL (newspaper, magazine)
|     -> Press Law No. 5187
|        Declaration: Chief Public Prosecutor (Art. 7) | Imprint: Art. 4 | Deposit: Art. 10
|        Reply and correction: Art. 14 | Liability: Arts. 11, 13
|
+-- INTERNET NEWS WEBSITE
|     -> Press Law No. 5187 (brought within scope by Law No. 7418)
|        Arts. 2(c) and 2(m): an internet news website = a PERIODICAL
|        Declaration + registered e-notification address (Art. 7) | Extended imprint (Art. 4)
|        Content retained for 2 years (Art. 10) | Reply and correction 1 day + URL (Art. 14)
|        (Access blocking / content removal sits in Internet Law No. 5651 — outside this article)
|
+-- RADIO / TELEVISION / ON-DEMAND (VOD)
|     -> Broadcasting Law No. 6112
|        Broadcasting licence mandatory (Art. 27(1)) | Broadcasting principles (Art. 8)
|        Advertising rules (Arts. 9-13) | RTÜK sanctions (Art. 32)
|        A licence is required even if you broadcast solely over the internet (Art. 29/A(1))
|
+-- TRT (public broadcaster)
|     -> TRT Law No. 2954 + Law No. 6112
|        Constitution Art. 133: autonomy and impartiality of its broadcasts are essential
|        Law No. 6112 Art. 45: the broadcasting principles and commercial communication
|        provisions apply to TRT as well
|        The sanction is NOT a fine: a warning by the Supreme Council + notification to the
|        relevant Ministry
|
+-- NEWS AGENCY
|     -> Law No. 5187 (agency output counts as a printed work and a periodical:
|        Arts. 2(a), 2(c))
|        + Law No. 195 (regime for official advertisements and announcements)
|        Constitution Art. 133: the autonomy and the impartiality of the broadcasts of
|        news agencies receiving support from public legal entities are essential
|
+-- NON-PERIODICAL PUBLICATION (books, gift editions and similar printed works)
|     -> Law No. 5187 applies only in a LIMITED way
|        Imprint (Art. 4) and deposit (Art. 10) DO apply
|        Declaration (Art. 7) does NOT — the declaration is only for periodicals
|        Reply and correction (Art. 14) does NOT — Art. 14 operates only for periodicals
|        Liability: the publisher; where the publisher is unknown, the printer (Arts. 11, 13)
|
+-- A JOURNALIST'S EMPLOYMENT RELATIONSHIP (whatever the medium)
|     -> Press Labour Act No. 5953
|        Scope: newspapers, internet news websites, periodicals, news and
|        photo agencies (Art. 1)
|        Staff of a broadcaster's news unit are also subject to Law No. 5953
|        (Law No. 6112, Art. 23(1))
|
+-- OFFICIAL ADVERTISEMENTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS
|     -> Law No. 195 on the Establishment of the Press Advertising Agency
|        The press ethics principles rest on Art. 49 (linked to Additional Art. 6 of
|        Law No. 5187)
|
+-- PROTECTION OF CHILDREN
      -> In print: Law No. 1117 (Board decision + restrictive measures)
      -> In radio/TV/VOD: Law No. 6112, Arts. 8(2), 8(3), 24 (protective symbol system)

Comparison Table

Printed Periodicals: Newspapers and Magazines

Under Article 2(c) of Law No. 5187, a periodical is "printed works such as newspapers and magazines published at regular intervals, together with the output of news agencies and internet news websites". Printed newspapers and magazines form the core of that definition. Under Article 29 of the Constitution, publishing a periodical may not be made subject to prior authorisation or to the lodging of a financial guarantee; only notification is required.

• Declaration (Art. 7): It is sufficient to file a declaration with the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the place where the management is located; the records are open to the public. The declaration states the name and nature of the publication, the publication interval, the place of management, the names and addresses of the owner, the representative and the responsible editor, the type of publication and the registered electronic notification address. For details on how to complete it, see the guide to the periodical publication declaration.
• Responsible editor (Art. 5): must have attained 18 years of age, be resident and permanently living in Turkey, hold at least a secondary-school or equivalent qualification, not be under legal incapacity or barred from public service, and not have been convicted of an offence involving moral turpitude.
• Deposit (Art. 10): the printer delivers two signed copies of every publication printed to the Chief Public Prosecutor's Office of the locality on the day of distribution or publication.
• Type of publication (Arts. 2(d), (e), (f)): the national / regional / local distinction is both stated in the declaration and changes the minimum penalty thresholds in Articles 15, 16, 18, 20 and 21.
• Limitation period for proceedings (Art. 26): 4 months for daily periodicals, 6 months for other printed works. This is a condition of prosecution; once the period expires, no case may be brought. For printed works the period runs from the date of deposit with the prosecutor's office.
• Protection of sources (Art. 12): the owner of a periodical, the responsible editor and the author may not be compelled to disclose any source of news, including information and documents, or to give evidence on the matter.

Internet News Websites

Law No. 7418 defined the internet news website in Article 2(m) of Law No. 5187 and, through Article 2(c), classified it as a periodical: "A periodical established and operated for the purpose of presenting written, visual or audio content in the nature of news or commentary at regular intervals in the internet environment." An internet news website is therefore not subject to a statute of its own but to the periodical regime of Law No. 5187; it does, however, have special provisions that depart from print in several respects.

• Imprint (Art. 4): the business address, trade name, e-mail address, contact telephone number and registered electronic notification address, together with the name and address of the hosting provider, must be kept under a "contact" heading that users can reach directly from the home page. In addition, the date on which the content was first presented and the dates of subsequent updates must be stated on the content itself, in a manner that does not change each time it is accessed. For a ready-made structure, see the internet news website imprint template.
• Defective declaration (Art. 8): the sanction of suspension of publication is not applied to internet news websites. If the defect is not remedied, the prosecutor's office applies to the criminal court of first instance for "a determination that the status of an internet news website has not been acquired". If the application is granted, the right to official advertisements and announcements, and the press card rights of the site's employees, cease to exist.
• Content retention (Art. 10): published content must be retained for two years in a manner that preserves its accuracy and integrity, for delivery to the prosecutor's office on request. If a judicial authority notifies in writing that the publication is the subject of an investigation or prosecution, the record must be kept until the proceedings are concluded.
• Reply and correction (Art. 14): the text is published within one day at the latest of the date of receipt, on the page and in the columns where the relevant publication appears, with a URL link provided, in the same type size and in the same manner. If access to the relevant content has been blocked, the content has been removed, or it has been taken down of its own accord, the text is published for one week, the first 24 hours of which on the home page.
• Limitation period (Art. 26): 4 months; the period runs from the date on which the criminal complaint concerning the item was made — which differs from the "date of deposit" start point in print.

Radio, Television and On-Demand Services

This branch departs structurally from Law No. 5187. The final sentence of Article 26 of the Constitution expressly permits broadcasts by radio, television and cinema to be made subject to a system of authorisation; Law No. 6112 constructs that authorisation as a broadcasting licence. Under Article 27(1), a separate licence must be obtained for each of the cable, satellite, terrestrial and similar environments, and where broadcasting takes place simultaneously in different environments the broadcasts must be simultaneous. A licence lasts ten years (Article 27(2)) and a terrestrial broadcasting licence may not be transferred (Article 27(3)).

• Company form (Art. 19(1)(a)): a broadcasting licence is granted only to joint-stock companies incorporated under the Turkish Commercial Code for the exclusive purpose of providing radio, television and on-demand media services. A single company may provide only one radio, one television and one on-demand media service.
• Broadcasting principles (Art. 8): a catalogue of 24 sub-paragraphs plus the child-protection paragraphs. We deal with all of them, and with how to check them before broadcast, item by item in the RTÜK broadcasting principles checklist.
• Sanctions (Art. 32): administrative fines calculated on gross commercial communication revenue, suspension of a programme, suspension of broadcasting on repetition, and revocation of the licence. The time limit for bringing proceedings is 15 days from notification, and the competent forum is the Ankara administrative courts.
• Internet-only broadcasting (Art. 29/A(1)): those wishing to provide radio, television and on-demand media services solely over the internet must also obtain a broadcasting licence from the Supreme Council. Conversely, under Article 29/A(4), individual communication falls outside this scope, and those who merely host such services are not treated as platform operators.

TRT

TRT's constitutional position is set out in the third paragraph of Article 133 of the Constitution: "The autonomy and the impartiality of the broadcasts of the sole radio and television corporation established by the State as a public legal entity, and of the news agencies receiving assistance from public legal entities, are essential." The corporation's constitutional set-up and duties are governed by Law No. 2954 on Turkish Radio and Television. In terms of broadcast content, however, TRT is not outside Law No. 6112: under Article 45(1), "the broadcasting principles set out in Article 8 and the provisions of this Law governing commercial communication in media services shall also apply to the broadcasts of the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation". Article 24(3) extends the protective symbol obligation to TRT as well.

The difference lies in the sanction. Under Article 45(2), where an obligation is not complied with, no administrative fine is imposed on TRT; instead, the Supreme Council issues a warning expressly stating the nature of the breach and notifies the relevant Ministry that the obligation is to be complied with.

News Agencies

News agencies appear in two separate places within Law No. 5187. Under Article 2(a), "the output of news agencies" counts as a printed work; under Article 2(c), the output of news agencies falls within the scope of periodicals. Agency output is therefore subject to the liability regime (Articles 11 and 13), the reply and correction regime (Article 14) and the limitation regime (Article 26) of Law No. 5187. The definition of a national periodical in Article 2(d) also covers the output of news agencies.

There are two points of distinction. First, the additional imprint details in Article 4 (place of management, owner, representative, responsible editor, type of publication) are required for "every type of periodical other than a news agency". Second, in respect of news agencies receiving assistance from public legal entities, Article 133 of the Constitution imposes the principles of autonomy and impartiality. A special regime concerning the assets and personnel of the Anadolu Agency is separately laid down in Law No. 57; nor should the link between agency output and Article 8(1)(ı) of Law No. 6112 be overlooked — a television broadcaster must cite the source when it broadcasts news obtained from an agency.

Non-Periodical Publications: Books and Similar Printed Works

Article 2(h) of Law No. 5187 defines a non-periodical publication as "printed works such as books and gift editions that are not published at regular intervals". Non-periodical publications fall within the scope of Law No. 5187, but only to a limited extent: most of the provisions specific to periodicals do not operate here.

• What applies: the imprint under Article 4 (place and date of printing, names of the printer and, where applicable, the publisher, trade name, business address), the deposit obligation under Article 10, the seizure regime under Article 25, and the rules on republication under Article 24.
• Liability (Art. 11): in non-periodical publications the author is liable; if the author is unknown, lacks criminal capacity, is abroad and cannot be tried, or if the penalty to be imposed would not affect another conviction, the publisher is liable, and where the publisher is unknown, the printer. The same chain operates in civil liability as well (Article 13).
• What does not apply: the declaration obligation in Article 7 is only for periodicals. The right of reply and correction in Article 14 is likewise tied by the wording of the text to the case of a "periodical"; for an allegation published in a book, the route under Article 14 of Law No. 5187 does not operate and one must resort to the general remedies.
• Protection of children: Article 1 of Law No. 1117 covers "periodicals and other printed works falling outside the definition of a periodical" — meaning books too may fall within that statute's restriction regime.
• Limitation period (Art. 26): 6 months for other printed works; the period runs from the date of deposit with the prosecutor's office, or, where no deposit was made, from the date the prosecutor's office learned of the act.

A Journalist's Employment Relationship: Law No. 5953 Is Medium-Neutral

This is the only horizontal branch in the decision tree. Law No. 5953 looks not at the medium in which you publish but at who is employed in what capacity. Under Article 1, those working for remuneration in the intellectual and artistic work covered by the statute are called journalists; the organisations within scope are newspapers published in Turkey, internet news websites (added by Law No. 7418), periodicals, and news and photo agencies. The condition is to fall outside the definition of "worker" in Labour Law No. 4857 — that is, to be an intellectual worker (fikir işçisi). Journalists are subject in the first place to Law No. 5953, not to Law No. 4857.

• The bridge to radio and television: under Article 23(1) of Law No. 6112, press card holders employed in the news units of media service providers are subject to Law No. 5953. In other words, a television broadcaster's news unit sits in the domain of Law No. 6112, while the employment relationship of a correspondent in that unit sits in the domain of Law No. 5953.
• Exception (Law No. 5953, Art. 2): even where they would otherwise fall within scope, civil servants and staff employed by the State, provincial administrations and municipalities, by state economic enterprises and institutions, and by companies more than half of whose capital belongs to those enterprises, fall outside Law No. 5953.
• The job-security bridge (Art. 6, final paragraph): Articles 18, 19, 20, 21 and 29 of Labour Law No. 4857 apply by analogy.
• The link with the press card: under Additional Article 3(f) of Law No. 5187, an employment-based press card requires a contract compliant with Law No. 5953 and continuous work without a break of more than one month from the date of leaving a job, save for reasons of force majeure. For how to structure the contract, see the Law No. 5953-compliant journalist employment contract template.

Official Advertisements and Announcements: Law No. 195

The distribution of official advertisements and announcements is governed by Law No. 195 on the Establishment of the Press Advertising Agency, dated 2/1/1961. The constitutional root of that regime is the final paragraph of Article 29: periodicals benefit from the means and facilities of the State, of other public legal entities and of institutions attached to them on the basis of equality. The press ethics principles determined under Article 49 of Law No. 195 are directly connected to the press card regime: under Additional Article 6(2) of Law No. 5187, in the event of conduct contrary to those principles the Press Card Commission may issue a warning or decide to cancel the card, according to the nature of the breach.

The details of the suspension of advertisements, of quotas and of tariffs are found in the provisions of Law No. 195 itself, in the principle decisions of the General Assembly of the Press Advertising Agency and in the annual Official Advertisement Price Tariff; the individual article numbers of Law No. 195 were not examined separately in the verified source set for this article, and no article-level detail is therefore given here. For the tariff in force and the grounds for suspension, see the official advertisement rate archive and the Agency's current rules.

Protection of Children: Laws No. 1117 and No. 6112

Child protection operates through two separate mechanisms in two separate media, and the mechanisms do not substitute for one another.

The constitutional bridge is the final paragraph of Article 41: "The State shall take measures to protect children against all forms of abuse and violence."

Overlaps: One Company, Three Separate Regimes

The real difficulty in practice is not correctly diagnosing a single medium but disentangling structures that operate in several media at once. The rule is simple: each medium brings its own regime, and the regimes do not absorb one another.

EXAMPLE: A media group — one brand, three separate legal regimes

1) Printed newspaper
   Periodical regime of Law No. 5187
   Declaration (Art. 7) | Imprint (Art. 4) | Deposit: 2 copies, same day (Art. 10)
   Reply and correction: 3 days (daily publication) | Limitation: 4 months (from deposit)

2) Internet news website
   Periodical regime of Law No. 5187, INTERNET NEWS WEBSITE SUB-REGIME
   Separate declaration + e-notification address | Extended imprint + date stamp
   Content retained 2 years | Reply and correction: 1 day, with URL link
   Limitation: 4 months (from the date of the CRIMINAL COMPLAINT)
   Defective declaration -> status determination -> loss of official advertisement
   and press card rights (Art. 8)

3) Television channel
   Regime of Law No. 6112 — NOT Law No. 5187
   Joint-stock company + broadcasting licence (Arts. 19(1)(a), 27(1))
   Broadcasting principles Art. 8 | Advertising rules Arts. 9-13
   Broadcast recordings: 1 year (Art. 25(1)) — DO NOT CONFUSE with the 2 years
   for a website
   Reply and correction: 7 days, at the same time and in the same programme (Art. 18(1))
   Penalty: RTÜK, on gross commercial communication revenue (Art. 32)
   Proceedings: 15 days, Ankara administrative courts (Arts. 32(9), 47(3))

HORIZONTAL LAYER — above all three
   No. 5953: the journalist's employment relationship (including the TV news unit,
             Law No. 6112 Art. 23(1))
   No. 195 : distribution of official advertisements + press ethics principles (Art. 49)

• Same story, different obligations: when a reply is received in respect of a story published in the newspaper the deadline is 3 days; if the same story is on the website it is 1 day; and if the same content went out in a television bulletin it is 7 days. Rather than writing a single "reply procedure", you need three medium-specific workflows.
• Archiving periods differ: internet news website content is retained for 2 years under Article 10 of Law No. 5187; television broadcast recordings for 1 year under Article 25(1) of Law No. 6112. If you are writing a single archiving policy, base it on the longer period.
• The sanctioning authority differs: on the print and internet side it is the criminal courts and judicial fines; on the radio and television side it is RTÜK and administrative fines. RTÜK cannot impose a penalty for a newspaper story, and a court cannot impose an administrative measure on a programme.
• Publication bans, however, build a bridge: Article 7(4) of Law No. 6112 treats breaches of "the publication bans and restrictions imposed under this Article and under Press Law No. 5187" together and provides a separate escalating scale for the media service provider: suspension for 1 day, up to 5 days on repetition, up to 15 days on a second repetition, and revocation of the licence on a third.

Legislation Falling Outside the Scope of This Article

The decision tree above rests on the official legislative set published by the Directorate of Communications and the Press Advertising Agency. In a real case, other regimes very often come into play which are not part of the source set for this article and are therefore not addressed here at article level. A compliance exercise carried out without knowledge of them will be incomplete.

• Internet Law No. 5651 on the Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Combating Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications — content removal, access blocking, and the liability of hosting providers and content providers. Article 14 of Law No. 5187 refers to cases of access blocking and content removal; Article 29/A(2) of Law No. 6112 likewise ties the removal of content and/or blocking of access by decision of a magistrate judge, in the case of unlicensed internet broadcasting, to Articles 8/A(3) and 8/A(5) of Law No. 5651. Law No. 5651 therefore operates separately and in parallel alongside the regimes described in this article.
• Turkish Penal Code No. 5237 ("TCK") — Article 125 defamation, Article 216 incitement to hatred and hostility, Article 217/A publicly disseminating misleading information (disinformation), Article 226 obscenity. The criminal liability provision in Article 11 of Law No. 5187 applies together with the TCK; the fact that an item complies procedurally with Law No. 5187 does not remove liability under the TCK.
• Personal Data Protection Law No. 6698 ("KVKK") and the press exemption — in stories containing personal data, the exemption provision of the KVKK may conflict with the prohibition on disclosing identity in Article 21 of Law No. 5187. The two regimes must be assessed together.

The Constitutional Framework

All of these statutes are applied within the framework drawn by the Constitution. When an obligation becomes contested, the first place to look is not the statute but the constitutional provision on which that statute rests.

Above all of these stands Article 13: fundamental rights and freedoms may be restricted only by law, without infringing upon their essence, and only on the grounds set out in the relevant articles of the Constitution; such restrictions may not be contrary to the letter and spirit of the Constitution, to the requirements of the democratic order of society, or to the principle of proportionality. In arguing about a restriction, four gates are tested in turn: legality, a ground listed in the Constitution, non-infringement of the essence, and proportionality.