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Turkish Press Council
was founded by 141 "working journalists", with support of some publishers on the
6th February 1988 in Istanbul.
The Press Council's income depends on the annual fees of the individual
members, newspapers, news agencies, radio and TV channels, and journalistic
associations who have become member of the Council.
Turkish Press Council does not accept donation or contribution from the
public sector.
Supreme Board of the Turkish Press Council, apart from the sixteen members
elected in the yearly convention (8 journalists and 10 lay members) has another
eighteen members, representing dailies, radio and TV organizations, provided
they are also members of the Council. Thus the members of the Board in full are
34. During adjudication of a complaint file, if a member of the Board has a
connection with that media group (or newspaper etc.), he/she can not take part
in the process.
The Press Council, like most of the other Councils, established on voluntary
basis, considers it absolutely essential that "freedom of communication (press)"
and "freedom of expression" have to be developed. In fact views of the Council
on these issues have been well treated, so that two laws have been enacted, one
in 1997, the other in 2001, whereby Turkey has succeeded to drop from the list
of countries with maximum number of jailed journalists.
Again another proposal -concerning the transparency of the public sector-
submitted to the Parliament by the Press Council, has found support and was
included in the agenda of the relevant parliamentary commission.
The Turkish Press Council, in past years used to receive forty to sixty
complaints per year. Whereas this year until October 2001 the Council received
134 complaints. Out of these, 90 files were adjudicated, 22 have been "reprimanded",
36 files were "censured", 32 files were rejected.
Out of applications to the Council, 17 files were not processed, because they
have not fulfilled the procedural requirements. Two files of complaints resolved
by reconciliation. At present we have 25 files waiting to be processed in
accordance with the rules.
Finally…
The Press Council does not confine its activities on the written press, but
receives complaints about radio and TV organizations too.
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