In this newsletter we summarise the prominent legal issues in Turkey's media sector by reviewing the decisions taken by Turkey's Radio and Television Supreme Council (the "Supreme Council"), including the announcements made, current legislative regulations, and news reflected in the Turkish press during 2023.
01. Overview of Current Legislation
In 2018, with the amendments made to Law No. 6112 on the Establishment and Broadcasting Services of Radio and Television Enterprises (the "Law"), media service providers wishing to offer radio, television and on-demand broadcasting services on the internet in Turkey have been required to obtain a broadcasting licence, and subsequently many foreign music and TV series/film platforms established companies in Turkey and applied for licences. According to current data, there are 94 licensed media service providers operating on the internet in Turkey.
While no crucial legislative amendments were made since 2018, the concept of "conditional access" was added to Article 3 of the Law on 28 December 2023. Accordingly, "all kinds of technical measures and arrangements that provide conditional access to broadcasting services through subscription or prior authorisation through another method" are defined as conditional access. As a result of this amendment, media service providers and internet platform operators providing conditional access in Turkey must allocate 1.5% of their annual net sales to the budget of the Supreme Council.
02. Supreme Council Sanctions
The Supreme Council may impose administrative sanctions on broadcasters in the form of warnings, the suspension of programming, licence cancellations or administrative fines, depending on the severity of the violation and the broadcasting platform.
The Supreme Council conducts inspections on compliance with the Law through broadcasting service principles, where it has a wide discretionary authority.
What are the broadcasting service principles?
Pursuant to Article 8 of the Law, media service providers in Turkey are obliged to provide broadcasting services in accordance with the basic principles set out in this article with an understanding of public responsibility. Among the principles regulated as mandatory, some of the most prominent ones are as follows:
- Not to discriminate on the basis of race, language, religion, gender, etc.; not to incite the society toward hatred and hostility.
- Not to incite abuse and violence against children, the weak or the disabled.
- Not to be contrary to the national and sentimental values, morals, and family structure of society.
- Not to encourage the use of addictive substances and gambling.
In addition, the administrative fine imposed in case of violation shall not be less than TRY 8,573 for radio organisations and TRY 85,738 for television organisations and ondemand media service providers for the year 2023.1
In case of non-compliance with other rules and obligations regulated by the Law, an administrative fine may be imposed from 1%–3% of the gross commercial communication revenue of the month preceding the month in which the violation was detected.
In addition, in the event of a violation the Supreme Council may impose an administrative injunction on the relevant institution, either alone or in combination with an administrative fine, to suspend the broadcast of the infringing programme up to five times or to remove the infringing programme from the catalogue of on-demand broadcasting services. This sanction also has serious financial effects on the organisations.
03. Prominent Supreme Council Decisions in 2023
In the Supreme Council activity report for 2022, it was announced that a total of 1,191 sanctions were imposed on broadcasting organisations in Turkey for violations of broadcasting service principles. These include:
- 9 decisions on "the principle of protection of national and sentimental values of the society, general morality and the family",
- 12 decisions on "the principle of impartiality",
- 197 decisions on "the principle of not exploiting persons through fortune-telling or superstition",
- 216 decisions on "the principle of not giving rise to unfair competition",
- 687 decisions on "the prohibition of selling products with health claims and promoting chat-lines and reality dating shows and services contrary to legislation"
We would like to point out that although the Supreme Council has not yet submitted an annual report for 2023 or a statistical study detailing the sanctions imposed last year, most of the news content reflected in the press indicates that a total of 76 sanction decisions were imposed on broadcasting organisations in 2023. Although all sanction decisions are published on Supreme Council's official website and shared with the public, decisions pending in court (i.e., decisions that have been appealed) are not included. Below we have compiled a list of decisions in 2023 that we came across both in the press and from within the sector:
- Principle Decision: The Supreme Council's principle decision dated 19 December 2023 states that attention should be paid to issues such as the use of peaceful, nonviolent language in sports programmes, the use of careful language in comments about the boards and executives of sports federations, not exceeding the limits of criticism, not violating personal rights, and not including insults and slander.
- Sanction Decisions: In 2023, it was observed
that the majority of the sanctions imposed on news broadcasting
channels, general broadcasting national channels and digital
platforms were administrative sanctions imposed for violations of
broadcasting service principles. Examples include:
communication revenue of the month preceding the month in which the violation was detected) for violating the principle of "not including programmes that contradict gender equality, encourage oppression against women and exploit women" regulated in Article 8 of the Law in a broadcast of a popular TV series that has been broadcast for two seasons.
In 2023, broadcasting on various foreign digital TV series/film platforms were examined within the scope of the broadcasting service principles. In this context, it was announced that some broadcasts on these digital platforms were subject to administrative fines at the upper limit on grounds such as "failure to recognise the boundaries of gender, sexuality and relationships"; "disturbing and immoral behaviour"; and "violation of the national and moral values of society".
04. A First Look at the 2024 Agenda: What awaits media organisations?
Turkey's media broadcasting service sector, unlike many other jurisdictions, is regulated in detail and supervised by a separate institutional authority. It is therefore important that broadcasting organisations operating in Turkey carry out their activities in accordance with the broadcasting principles set out in the Law, in secondary legal regulations, and in Supreme Council decisions.
In line with several prominent sanction decisions, we can say that media organisations in Turkey were subject to strict supervision in 2023, especially in terms of broadcasting service principles. Although no official announcement has yet been made by the Supreme Council, there is news that broadcasting organisations, especially television channels, were fined a total amount of approximately TRY 45 million during 2023.
During a speech on 15 November 2023, the president of the Supreme Council announced that there are 1,271 active media service providers in Turkey with terrestrial, satellite, cable and internet broadcasting licences and broadcasting permits. He also underlined that disinformation and manipulative broadcasts are not allowed in Turkey's broadcasting environment.
In addition, licensing requirements for media service providers will continue in 2024, and with the Supreme Council Decision published on 4 January 2024, satellite, cable and internet broadcasting licence fees and broadcast transmission authorisation fees for 2024 have been increased. Accordingly, the following fees will be applied for television broadcast licence fees in 2024, including but not limited to the following:
- The television broadcasting licence fee for satellite broadcasts is TRY 2,401,8
- The television broadcasting licence fee for cable broadcasts will be TRY 229,258 (approximately EUR 7,000);
- The television broadcasting licence fee for internet broadcasting is TRY 643,517 (approximately EUR 20,000).
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
