The Regulation on Official Announcements and Advertisements (“Regulation“) of the Directorate General of the Press Advertisement Agency (“Directorate“), which aims to determine the qualifications and duties of periodicals in which official announcements and advertisements will be published and to ensure their distribution without discrimination of opinion and jurisprudence, was published in the Official Gazette dated 01.02.2023 and numbered 32091.
The scope, distribution, the right to publish official announcements and advertisements, the intermediary duties and powers, characteristics and duties of the periodicals publishing such and the procedures and principles of their audit fall within the scope of the Regulation.
It is regulated that this Regulation shall not apply to any digital media that do not have the characteristics of an online news website, including publications published in fascicles and out-of-date publications and websites of news and photo agencies.
Within the scope of the Regulation, announcements that must be published by law, presidential decree, by-law or regulation, and announcements that do not constitute advertisements belonging to central government administrations, local administrations, social security institutions, universities, chambers and stock exchanges, unions, bar associations, state economic enterprises, organizations with more than half of their capital belonging to public legal entities and their affiliates are defined as official announcements.
Official advertisements, on the other hand, are defined in Article 6 of the Regulation as “content published in visual, audio or written form in periodicals by the above-mentioned institutions and organizations or by-law or Presidential decree for the purpose of obtaining a material or immaterial benefit, such as creating a demand for a thing or an idea, or for promotional purposes.”
Pursuant to the Regulation the Press Advertisement Agency is obliged to announce, on the last working day of each month, the list of periodicals that can be given official advertisements and advertisements in the following month and other information deemed necessary on its website.
In order for a newspaper or online news website to be entitled to publish official advertisements, it must fulfil certain qualifications and duties set forth in the fifth section of the Regulation in a complete and timely manner.
Among these duties and qualifications are titles such as staffing requirements, notification obligation, content criteria, use of domain names, content similarity and workplace obligation.
Provisions on newspapers related to the publication of official announcements are included in a more detailed framework. The Regulation introduces detailed regulations on the place of publication, continuity in publication, printing and distribution principles, imprint and mandatory information, sectoral books and minimum staff of newspapers.
Online news websites related to the publication of official announcements have been categorized according to their quotas, and requirements have been introduced on issues such as the concessionaires, minimum staff, and minimum visitor traffic information of online news websites.
You may reach the full Turkish text of the Regulation via the link below.
https://www.resmigazete.gov.tr/eskiler/2023/02/20230201-7.htm
