Who Is Liable for a News Story Written by AI in Turkey?

The short answer

Even where artificial intelligence is used, the criminal and civil liability arising from published content remains with the natural and legal persons the statute lists: the author, the responsible editor, the senior figure to whom the responsible editor reports, the owner of the publication and the representative of the legal person. The name of the tool used, its version, or how "autonomously" it operated do not change this chain.

• Criminal liability: Press Law Article 11 - the author; and where the conditions are met, the responsible editor and the senior figure to whom the responsible editor reports.
• Civil liability: Press Law Article 13 - the author together with the owner of the publication and, if there is one, its representative, jointly and severally.
• Definition of the author: Press Law Article 2(i) - the person who writes or translates the content, or makes the picture or cartoon, or records or edits visual or audio content.
• Conditions for being a responsible editor: Press Law Article 5 - age, place of residence, level of education: conditions that make sense only for a human being.
• Scope: following the amendment made by Law No. 7418, online news sites are also within the scope of this statute.

Who the statute covers: online news sites and the definition of the author

By Law No. 7418 of 13/10/2022 the online news site was added to the definitions article of Law No. 5187 and the definition of a periodical publication was broadened. The same amendment also updated the definition of the author so as to cover visual and audio content.

Article 2 - Definitions (relevant sub-paragraphs)

i) Author: the person who writes or translates the text or the news
   item making up the content of a periodical or non-periodical
   publication, or who makes the picture or the cartoon, or who
   records or edits visual or audio content,

m) (Added: 13/10/2022-7418/2) Online news site: a periodical
   publication established and operated in the internet environment
   for the purpose of presenting, at regular intervals, written,
   visual or audio content in the nature of news or commentary,

shall mean the above.

Note the language of the definition: "the person who writes", "who translates", "who makes", "who records or edits". Here the statute looks for an act and a person who performs that act. The person who runs a text generation tool, selects its output, edits it and prepares it for publication falls within that definition. The tool itself can bear none of the capacities the statute lists.

Criminal liability - Press Law Article 11 (text of the provision)

Criminal liability

Article 11- An offence committed through printed works or online news
sites arises at the moment of publication.

The author is liable for offences committed through periodical and
non-periodical publications.

In periodical publications, where the author is not known, or does not
have criminal capacity at the time of publication, or cannot be tried
in Turkey because they are abroad, or where the penalty to be imposed
would have no effect on a penalty to which the author has been
sentenced by a final judgment for another offence, the responsible
editor and the senior figure to whom the responsible editor reports -
such as the editorial director, the editor-in-chief, the editor or the
press adviser - shall be liable. However, where the work is published
despite the objection of the responsible editor and of the senior
figure to whom the responsible editor reports, the resulting liability
lies with the person who caused it to be published.

In non-periodical publications, where the author is not known, or does
not have criminal capacity at the time of publication, or cannot be
tried in Turkey because they are abroad, or where the penalty to be
imposed would have no effect on a penalty to which the author has been
sentenced by a final judgment for another offence, the publisher shall
be liable; and where the publisher is not known, or does not have
criminal capacity at the time of printing, or cannot be tried in
Turkey because they are abroad, the printer shall be liable.

The above provisions also apply to publications made without
complying with the conditions required by this Law for periodical and
non-periodical publications.

Every link in the chain the provision builds is a person. In first place stands the author. If the author is not known, or one of the other situations listed in the provision applies, liability passes to the responsible editor and to the senior figure to whom the responsible editor reports. The provision lists that senior figure by way of example too: editorial director, editor-in-chief, editor, press adviser. All of these are human capacities. Note the trigger for the second link in the chain: "the author is not known". That is precisely the situation that arises with a story generated by artificial intelligence and carrying nobody's byline - in other words, not signing a story does not remove liability, it moves it upwards.

Civil liability - Press Law Article 13 (text of the provision)

Civil liability

Article 13- For pecuniary and non-pecuniary loss arising from acts
committed through printed works or online news sites, in periodical
publications the author together with the owner of the publication
and, if there is one, its representative, and in non-periodical
publications the author together with the publisher - or, where the
publisher is not known, the printer - are jointly and severally
liable.

This provision also applies to natural or legal persons who, in
periodical or non-periodical publications, are the owner of the
publication, the owner of the trade mark or licence, the lessor, the
operator, or who publish in any capacity or act as a publisher. Where
the legal person is a company, the chairman of the board of directors
in joint stock companies and the most senior manager in other
companies is jointly and severally liable together with the company.

Where, after the commission of the act causing the loss, the
publication is transferred in any manner whatsoever, is merged with
another publication, or the natural or legal person owning it changes
in any manner, the natural and legal persons who take over the
publication, who merge with it, or who in any manner whatsoever act as
the owner of the publication, and the chairman of the board of
directors in joint stock companies and the senior manager in other
companies, are jointly and severally liable, together with those
listed in the first and second paragraphs, for the compensation to be
awarded on account of that act.

In Article 13 there is no ordering such as the one in criminal liability; liability is established jointly from the outset. The injured person may apply to the author, to the owner of the publication and, if there is one, to its representative at the same time, and may demand the whole of the compensation from any one of them. Where the legal person is a company, the chairman of the board of directors in joint stock companies and the most senior manager in other companies is jointly and severally liable together with the company.

• In joint and several liability, the defence "I did not write the text" does not save the owner of the publication; the statute holds them directly liable.
• The scope of Article 13(2) is very broad: the owner of a trade mark or licence, the lessor, the operator, a person publishing in any capacity, and persons "acting as a publisher" all come under the same liability.
• Under Article 13(3), liability continues even if the publication is transferred or merged; the transferee is jointly and severally liable for the same compensation.
• Nowhere in the chain of liability do the words "software", "tool" or "system" appear. Every capacity the statute lists belongs to a natural or a legal person.

Why can a piece of software not be a responsible editor?

This is not interpretation but the plain consequence of the statute. Press Law Article 5 requires the following conditions in order to be a responsible editor:

Responsible editor

Article 5- Every periodical publication has a responsible editor.
Where there is more than one responsible editor, the section for which
each is responsible is specified.

In order to be a responsible editor, it is necessary;
a) to have completed the age of eighteen,
b) to have a place of residence in Turkey and to reside there
   permanently,
c) to have graduated from at least a secondary education institution
   or an equivalent one,
d) not to be legally incapacitated or barred from public service,
e) not to have been convicted of offences involving moral turpitude,
f) for those who are not citizens of the Republic of Turkey, that the
   condition of reciprocity be satisfied.

Age, place of residence, level of education, incapacity and conviction - none of these conditions means anything for a piece of software. In the same way, the criterion in Article 11(3) of "not having criminal capacity" can only be established in respect of a human being. The statute has built liability on persons with criminal capacity; a tool cannot be fitted into that structure.

Conclusion: liability lies with the publisher and the responsible editor

Even if artificial intelligence produced the draft of a story, there is a person who selected that text, edited it and released it for publication; that is the actor the statute is looking for. If there is a byline, that person is the author (Article 2(i) and Article 11(2)). If there is no byline, then because the author is not known Article 11(3) comes into play and liability passes to the responsible editor and the senior figure to whom they report. On the civil side, Article 13 already holds the owner of the publication and, if there is one, its representative liable from the outset. The use of artificial intelligence, in other words, does not disperse liability; it concentrates it in the publisher.

The duty to verify: the real risk lies here

The most concrete risk of generative tools is not copyright but departure from the truth. A tool can produce, in convincing language, a statement that was never made, an incorrect date, or a source that does not exist. The moment it is published, it becomes your story and you are responsible for its accuracy. Verification does not diminish with the use of artificial intelligence; it increases.

• Every name, institution, date, figure and quotation in the text must be confirmed against a primary source.
• Every source and link produced by the tool must be opened one by one; non-existent sources are the most frequently seen error.
• References to legislation must be verified against the official text; the article and paragraph number must be confirmed.
• Whether the person quoted actually said those words must be confirmed at source.
• A separate check is required on the image side; we examined that in our article on images generated with artificial intelligence.
• Reader comments and user contributions are subject to a different regime; we deal with that distinction in our article on liability for reader comments.

The risk of reply and correction

A publication contrary to the truth gives rise to the right of reply and correction under Press Law Article 14. The provision requires that, where a periodical publication infringes a person's honour and dignity or publishes something contrary to the truth about them, the text sent by the injured person within two months of the date of publication be published by the responsible editor without any correction or addition. For online news sites the time limit for publishing it is at the latest one day from the date the text was received; the text is published on the page and in the columns where the publication concerned appeared, with a URL link provided, in the same type size and in the same manner.

• If it is not published, an application may be made to the criminal judgeship of peace within 15 days from the expiry of the period allowed for publication.
• If it is published in a non-compliant manner, the same route is used within 15 days from the date of publication.
• The criminal judge of peace decides the request within 3 days without a hearing; an expedited objection lies against the decision.
• Where the content has been removed or access to it blocked, the reply and correction text is published on the online news site concerned for one week, the first 24 hours of which are on the home page.
• We explained in detail how the text is to be prepared and how to manage the process in our article with a sample reply and correction petition.

Internal control recommendations for a publisher

Since the statute ties liability to persons, your internal rules should also name persons and steps. The policy skeleton below makes the chain in Articles 11 and 13 traceable inside the organisation.

AI-ASSISTED CONTENT PRODUCTION POLICY - SKELETON

1. SCOPE
   1.1 This policy covers all content produced on the online news site
       [publication name].
   1.2 Artificial intelligence tools are used only for the tasks listed
       below:
       ( ) headline suggestions  ( ) summarising  ( ) draft translation
       ( ) copy-editing          ( ) organising data
   1.3 They are NOT USED for the following:
       - producing an unverified account of an event
       - producing sources or quotations
       - producing references to legislation

2. BYLINE AND AUTHORSHIP
   2.1 Every story is published under the name of an author within the
       meaning of Article 2(i) of Law No. 5187. No story is published
       without a byline.
   2.2 The byline belongs to the person who approved the text in its
       final form.
   2.3 An artificial intelligence tool does not stand in for a byline
       and is not cited as a source.

3. VERIFICATION
   3.1 Every name/date/figure/quotation in the text is confirmed
       against a primary source; the confirmation record is entered in
       the story file.
   3.2 All links produced by the tool are opened and verified.
   3.3 The name of the person carrying out verification and the time
       are recorded.

4. APPROVAL CHAIN (aligned with the chain in Art. 11 of Law No. 5187)
   4.1 Written/edited by  : ..........................
   4.2 Verified by        : ..........................
   4.3 Editor             : ..........................
   4.4 Types of content requiring the responsible editor's approval:
       ( ) containing an allegation about a person  ( ) court reporting
       ( ) health  ( ) children  ( ) financial markets

5. RECORDS
   5.1 The tool used, its version, the prompt text and the date of
       generation are recorded.
   5.2 Records are kept for at least [period].

6. CORRECTION
   6.1 If an error is found, the story is updated and an update note is
       added.
   6.2 Reply and correction requests are passed to the responsible
       editor the same day.

Date of entry into force: ......  Approved by: ......  Signature: ......

Content record template

STORY PRODUCTION RECORD (not published)

Story slug            : ..............................
Date/time of publication: ............................
Byline (author)       : ..............................

USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
  Was it used?        : yes / no
  Tool and version    : ..............................
  Type of use         : headline / summary / translation /
                        copy-editing / other
  Prompt              : ..............................
  Share of the output in the text: all / part / editing only

VERIFICATION
  Primary sources     : ..............................
  Verified by         : ............  date/time: ......
  Number of links opened and confirmed: ......
  References to legislation verified against the official text?
    yes / no

APPROVAL
  Editor              : ............  date/time: ......
  Responsible editor  : ............  date/time: ......

UPDATE HISTORY
  ....../....../......  change: ........................
  Was the update note shown to the reader? yes / no

Checklist

[ ] The imprint is published on the site and the responsible editor is
    expressly stated
[ ] Every story has a byline (an author within the meaning of Art. 2(i)
    of Law No. 5187)
[ ] The AI-assisted production policy is written down and announced
[ ] Records of tool, version and prompt are kept
[ ] The verification step is carried out by a separate person and
    recorded
[ ] Links in the tool's output are opened and confirmed one by one
[ ] References to legislation are verified against the official text
[ ] The reply and correction request workflow is defined and reaches
    the responsible editor the same day
[ ] Compliance with the one-day publication period for online news
    sites is achievable
[ ] There is an update note mechanism (what changed, when and why)
[ ] Details of the owner of the publication and the representative are
    up to date - these are the addressees under Art. 13
[ ] Archives and records are kept with backups

What is needed on the technical side?

You will find how the imprint and the responsible editor's details are to be displayed on the site in our online news site imprint template, and the other obligations imposed by the statute in our legal compliance checklist. The chain in Articles 11 and 13 requires you to be able to answer the question of who approved what and when; for that you need a publishing system in which the byline field is mandatory, the approval chain is recorded and the update history is traceable. The KEYDAL news publishing software lets you keep the byline, the editor and responsible editor approval steps, update notes and production records together with the story, and lets you publish reply and correction texts on the page of the publication concerned and on the home page for the required period.