Law no 7418 on Amending Press Law and Certain Laws entered into force after being published in the Official Gazette No. 31987 dated October 18, 2022.

With new law, major amendments like inclusion of the regulation of Internet News Sites within the scope of Turkish Press Law, details and updates with regards to types, eligibility conditions, issuance, and cancellations of Press Cards are made to the Turkish Press Law.  New rules regulating operations and obligations of foreign Social Network Providers and Over-the-Network Providers are introduced and sanctions and restrictions are adopted in an aim to regulate online platforms and to criminalize certain offences like disseminating false or misleading content.

New law introduces following major amendments and important additions to the Turkish Press Law no. 5187, Law no 5651 on Regulation of Broadcasts via Internet and Combating Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications and Law no 5809 on Electronic Notification.

With new law, the issues concerning the internet news sites and press card are included within the framework of the Press Law No. 5187 and it is stipulated that the civil servants working in the information services carried out by the radio, television and state institutions and organizations shall be evaluated like the periodical employees in terms of the issuance of press card.

In the Article 2 of the Law No. 5187, certain concepts concerning the implementation of the aforementioned Law are defined; in order for the inclusion of the internet news sites within the framework of the Law, the internet news sites are included in the periodical definition specified in sub-paragraph (c) of the relevant Article and thus, the internet news sites are also included within the framework of the definition of periodical; with the sub-paragraph (ı), the definition of author is expanded and with the newly included sub-paragraph (m), the internet news site is defined. Besides, the press card, media members to whom the press card is to be issued and information officers, Communications Department to issue the press card and Commission to evaluate the application are defined and included to the Article.

In the third paragraph included to Article 4 of the Law No. 5187, it is specified that the internet news sites shall also be liable to provide the mandatory information like business address, trade name, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and electronic notification address on their own internet environment as to be directly reached by the users from the main page and under the heading of communication. Besides, with the other paragraph included, it has become compulsory to indicate the date of publication and update on the content without changing every time accessed.

With the amendment made in the second paragraph of Article 7 of the Law No. 5187, it is stipulated that the electronic notification address in accordance with Article 7/A of the Notification Law shall be notified in the declaration submitted. Thus, the fast and effective notification of the press releases and publication ban decisions rendered by the judicial bodies is aimed.  Besides, with another amendment made, it is stipulated that since the number of declarations will significantly increase with the inclusion of the internet news sites to the periodicals, in order to reduce the workload of the jurisdiction, the declarations shall be given to the Press Agency (“Basın İlan Kurumu”) instead of the Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office.

With the amendment made in the Article 8 of the Law No. 5187, it is specified that the publication suspension sanction cannot be imposed for the internet news sites and it is regulated that in case of failure to overcome the deficiencies or failure to correct the false information within the two weeks, it shall not be possible to be qualified as news site. The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office shall apply to the Criminal Court of First Instance in order to determine that the qualification of the internet news site has not been gained. The Court shall render its decision within two weeks at the latest. An appeal against this decision may be filed. If the application is accepted, official announcements and advertisements that can be provided for internet news sites and the rights regarding the employees’ press cards are revoked. The revocation of the rights provided for the Internet news site does not prevent the application of further sanctions in the Law.

With the inclusion of the internet news sites within the framework of Law No. 5187, the title of Article 10 is amended as “Delivery and Storage Liability”.  It is stipulated that the internet news sites shall be obliged to store the contents published for a period of two years by ensuring their accuracy, integrity and accessibility and when necessary, to deliver to the competent authorities requesting. Besides, it is regulated that in case the publication is subject to any investigation or prosecution in any way, the storage of the publication recording subject to the investigation or prosecution until the notification of the completion of the relevant transactions by the competent authorities to the relevant internet news site shall be compulsory.  With additions to the Article 14 of the Law No. 5187, the rights to correction and reply in the internet news sites are explicitly guaranteed. The correction and reply must be published on the same page and column as the relevant article, and in the same font and format, with the URL link, without making any corrections and additions, within one day at the latest from the date of receipt. It is specified that in case of the take down of the content and blocking of the access, the correction and reply text shall continue to be published for a period of one week.

With article 28 of Law no 7418, the expression of internet news sites is added to the “Criminal liability” provision regulated in Article 11 and to “Legal liability” provision regulated in Article 13 of the Law No. 5187.

By the virtue of article 29 of Law no 7418, article 217/A titled “Publicly disseminating misleading information” added to the Turkish Criminal Code to criminalize publicly disseminating untrue information concerning the internal and external security, public order and public health of the country in a manner that is conducive to disrupting public peace, solely for the purpose of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the public by one to three years of imprisonment. It is emphasised in the reasoning of article 29 that this crime is a crime of concrete danger by requiring the act to be capable of “disrupting public peace”. In addition, in order not to confuse these acts, which are characterised as “disinformation”, with the rights of individuals to express their individual opinions or to inform, it is sought as an additional element that the act is carried out with the motive of creating anxiety, fear or panic among the public. It should be noted that the content subject to disinformation may be directly false information related to the internal and external security, public order and public health of the country, as well as falsified information. In addition, the fact that the offence is committed by concealing the real identity of the perpetrator or within the framework of the activities of an organisation is foreseen as a reason for an increase in the penalty by half.

Some amendments introduced to the Law no 5651 on Regulation of Broadcasts via Internet and Combating Crimes Committed by Means of Such Publications, duties of The Association of Access Providers clarified as the implementation of content removal decisions as well as access blocking decisions. Association is also mandated to actively carry out activities for the conscious and safe use of the internet.  With the subparagraph (ç) added to the Article 8 of Law no 5651, content that constitutes a crime against the activities and personnel of the National Intelligence Organisation has been included in the scope of catalogue crimes.

Additional Article 4 of Law no 5651 on social network providers also amended in a way to establish a more effective mechanism for the protection of personal rights by strengthening the interlocutor relationship between users and competent authorities and social network providers.

With the amendment made within the scope of the fourth paragraph of additional article 4, the reporting obligation imposed on social network providers by the Law dated 29 July 2020 and numbered 7253 is expanded, and it is aimed to ensure that the policies of social network providers to provide equal service to users in an independent and impartial manner and their algorithms regarding hashtags, highlighted or reduced access content are reflected in the reports and to increase transparency by creating an advertising library.

With the regulation introduced by the fifth paragraph of additional article 4, it is aimed to prevent the failure of investigations and prosecutions as a result of the failure of social network providers to provide information to the judicial authorities within the scope of the judicial activities carried out regarding certain offences. These crimes are listed as Crimes in relations to Sexual abuse of children, Disseminating misleading information publicly, Disrupting the unity and territorial integrity of the State, Offences against the Constitutional Order and its Functioning and Crimes against State Secrets and Espionage. In the case that this information is not provided to the requesting Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office or  the court, the relevant public prosecutor shall request that the internet traffic bandwidth of the foreign-based social network provider be reduced by ninety percent.

With additions made to additional article 4, social network providers are obliged to take necessary measures to provide children-specific differentiated services, and to protect user rights.

Additional sanctions including restriction of the internet traffic bandwidth from fifty to ninety percent and advertisement ban are envisaged in the event that social network providers do not fulfil the content removal and/or access blocking decisions issued by the President within the scope of Articles 8 and 8/A of the Law.

With additions to the Law no 5809 on Electronic Notification, electronic communication services that are provided to internet users through applications called internet-based services or OTT (Over The Top) are defined. The rights and obligations of over-the-network service providers who are providing voice, written and visual communication services over the internet from abroad, even though they are not based in Turkey further introduced with additions to the Law no 5809. Relevant sanctions including blocking access and restriction of the internet traffic bandwidth are also introduced for that over-the-network service providers fail to fulfil the obligations stipulated in Law No. 5809.