Mass media in Turkey


The mass media in Turkey includes a wide variety of domestic and foreign periodicals. 90% of the media ownership is concentrated in the hands of a few pro-government media groups. Inevitably censorship in Turkey is an issue, and in the 21st century many journalists have been arrested and writers prosecuted. On Reporters Without Borders' Press Freedom Index it has fallen from being ranked around 100 in 2005 to around 159 in 2025.
In reaction to the failed coup d'état on 15 July 2016, over 150 media organisations, including newspapers, television and radio channels, news agencies, magazines and publishing houses, have been closed by the government of Turkey, and 160 journalists have been jailed.
By circulation, the most popular daily newspapers are Sabah, Sözcü, Hürriyet, Posta, and Milliyet. The broadcast media have a very high penetration as satellite dishes and cable systems are widely available. The "Radio and Television Supreme Council" is the government body overseeing the broadcast media. Aside from Turkish, the state television network offers some programs in Arabic and Kurdish.
Turkish consumers are the second-most media illiterate when compared to countries in Europe, leaving them especially vulnerable to fake news, according to a 2018 study. A combination of low education levels, low reading scores, low media freedom and low societal trust went into making the score, which saw Turkey being placed second lowest only to North Macedonia. Conspiracy theories are a prevalent phenomenon in Turkish media. According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2018, Turkey was the country where people complained the most about completely made-up stories.
According to polling in 2024 by Pew Research Center 33% of adult Turks believe that media in turkey have somewhat good or very good influence on the country a decline from 57% who said so in 2017, while 63% stated that they had a vary bad or somewhat bad influence on the country. People with a favorable view Recep Tayyip Erdoğan viewed the media more positively with 47% saying that it had a good influence on the country, compared to 23% of people who viewed Erdoğan unfavorably.

Legislative framework

The Constitution of Turkey, at art. 28, states that the press is free and shall not be censored. Yet, Constitutional guarantees are undermined by restrictive provisions in the Criminal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and anti-terrorism laws, effectively leaving prosecutors and judges with ample discretion to repress ordinary journalistic activities. The Turkish judiciary can and do censure media outlets under other constitutional provisions and loosely interpreted laws, such as “protecting basic characteristics of the Republic” and “safeguarding the indivisible integrity of the State with its territory and nation.”
Freedom of information principles have been introduced with the April 2004 Right to Information Act, affording to citizens and legal persons the right to request information from public institutions and private organizations that qualify as public institutions, although the implementation of the law is lacking.
The 2007 Press Law was coupled with a “Regulation of Publications on the Internet and Suppression of Crimes Committed Through Such Publications”, authorising the Telecommunications Communication Presidency to execute court orders to block websites and to issue blocking orders for the content providers in or outside Turkey for committing crimes such as child pornography, encouraging drug use and, especially, crimes against Atatürk. Between 2007 and 2010 around 3,700 websites and platforms including YouTube, MySpace, and GeoCities have been blocked.

Status and self-regulation of journalists

Media professionals in Turkey face job insecurity and lack of social security, being often forced to work without contract and outside the protection provided by the Law 212 on the rights of journalists. Without a contact under Law 212 media workers in Turkey cannot obtain a press badge and cannot take part in the Turkish Journalists Union
Turkey's 2001 financial crisis further strengthened media owners' hands, as 3–5,000 journalists were fired, and the most troublesome ones targeted first.
Some themes have long remained quasi-taboo in the Turkish media, including the role of the Army, the Cyprus issue and the rights of the Kurdish and Armenian minorities. The interests of media owners in the major media conglomerates inevitably cast a shadow over the objectivity and independence of the controlled media outlets.
Ethics in Turkish journalism is based on a couple of documents: the “Declaration of Rights and Responsibilities” by Turkish Journalists Association and the “Code of Professional Ethics of the Press” by Turkish Press Council.
In 2006 RTÜK introduced a voluntary ombudsman mechanism that media outlets can introduce in order to evaluate their audience's reactions. Yet, ombudsmen lack independence, as they are high-ranking employees of the same media groups.

Media outlets

Turkey hosts around 3,100 newspapers, including 180 national ones. Only 15% of these are daily newspapers. Turkish print outlets privilege columns and opinions over pure news, and are often politically polarised. Broadcast media include hundreds of TV stations and thousands of radio stations including some in minority languages. The introduction of Kurdish-language media has been hailed as a big progress, although their quality remains poor.
The main issues concerning mainstream media in Turkey are the heavy concentration of ownership, the widespread self-censorship of journalists and media professionals and the presence of nationalist rhetoric and hate speech.
More than two thirds of the media are owned by few cross-media groups, whose activities expand in other economic sectors. These media conglomerates thus rely on alliances with parts of the political and bureaucratic elites to sustain their business interests. As a result, the media landscape of Turkey is highly diverse but also very biased and nationalistic, and media coverage and critical positions reflects media owners' preferences and interests. Independent journalism is a rare and dangerous endeavour, at risk of high job insecurity.
The centralisation of public procurement decisions within the prime minister's office, the Housing Development Administration has stepped up the economic leverage of the government towards economic conglomerates that also control Turkish media.
  • Leaked conversations showed how in 2013 the government dictated which companies were to purchase the Sabah-ATV group, in exchange for the tenders related to the construction of Istanbul's third airport.
  • In November 2013 the Savings Deposit and Insurance Fund was used to transfer media assets to supportive businessmen. The AKP-friendly businessman Ethem Sancak bought from TMSF three media that were previously owned by the Çukurova Group.
In 2004 three major media groups dominated advertising revenues: Doğan Media Group and Sabah took 80% of newspaper advertising, and Doğan, Sabah and Çukurova took 70% of television advertising.
In the Turkish context, highly concentrated corporate media power is even more significant when three additional factors are considered: the willingness of corporate owners to ‘instrumentalize’ reporting in order to fit the wider political-economic interests of the parent company; the weakness of journalists and other employees in the face of the power of corporate owners; and the fact that corporate power is combined with restrictive state regulation on issues of freedom of speech.

The broadcast media have a very high penetration as satellite dishes and cable systems are widely available. The "Radio and Television Supreme Council" is the government body overseeing the broadcast media.
TV channels gather around half of the advertising market revenues, i.e. 1 billion dollars. The share of the print media and of the radio are in decline too. The advertising market is deemed relatively small when compared to the number of media, thus endangering the survival of the smaller media and constituting a barrier to the entry of new actors in the market. Turkish media also remain dependent on revenues from other activities of the economic conglomerates that own them.

Print media

Newspapers with oppositional editorial line against the government corresponds to 65% of daily newspapers in circulation while pro-government newspapers's share is 25%.
The total number of readers of print media in Turkey is low, when compared to the big population of the country. Circulating newspapers where estimated at 2,450 in 2010, of which 5 national, 23 regional and other local ones.
The media hubs of the country are Istanbul and Ankara. By circulation, the most popular daily newspapers are Hürriyet, Sabah, Posta, Sözcü and Habertürk. Major Turkish daily newspapers are published every day of the year, including Sundays, religious and secular public holidays.
Big media conglomerates, with substantial interests in other economic sectors, dominate the media market and own all the major print and broadcast media. These are the Doğan Group, Turkuvaz, Ciner Group, Çukurova Group and Doğuş Group:
  • The Doğan Group is the largest Turkish media conglomerate. It owns the mainstream/conservative daily Hürriyet, the boulevard daily Posta, the sports daily Fanatik, the business daily Referans, and the English-language daily Hürriyet Daily News. The group faced serious fiscal troubles in 2009.
  • The Turkuvaz Group, owned by the Çalık Holding, has connections with the ruling party AKP. It owns the mainstream daily Sabah, the boulevard daily Takvim, the sports daily Fotomaç, and the most prominent regional newspaper Yeni Asır.
  • The Ciner Group launched Gazete Habertürk in March 2009, thus entering the media market.
  • The Çukurova Group owns the nationalist dailies Akşam, Tercüman, and the boulevard paper Güneş.
  • The Albayrak business group publishes the conservative Islamic daily Yeni Şafak.
  • Demirören Holding publishes the dailies Milliyet and Vatan.
  • The Milli Gazete daily is deemed to be the voice of Milli Görüş, a vision promoted by religious-conservative parties in the 1990s such as Necmettin Erbakan's National Salvation Party in the 1970s and Welfare party during the 1990s.
  • Vakit is a more radical and sensationalist Islamic daily, which has been subject to several prosecutions.
  • The Cumhuriyet daily, once linked to the left, is now the reference newspaper for Kemalists and nationalist groups linked to the main opposition CHP party.
  • Star was launched by the businessman Ethem Sancak as an Islamic and liberal daily.
Magazines and periodicals too have a low circulation when compared with Turkey's population. The main ones are Tempo, Turkuvaz Group's Yeni Aktüel, and Newsweek Türkiye. Business magazines include Ekonomist and Para. Birikim is a well-reputed liberal-left journal, publishing elaborate articles on social and political issues. Satirical magazines have a long tradition in Turkey, with the first magazine published in 1869. There are currently around 20 satirical magazines; the leading ones are Penguen, LeMan and Uykusuz. Historical examples include Oğuz Aral's magazine Gırgır and Marko Paşa. Others include L-Manyak and Lombak.
Minority newspapers include IHO and Apoyevmatini in Greek language; Agos, Jamanak and Nor Marmara in Armenian language; and Şalom by the Jewish community. Their survival is often at stake.
Distribution networks are in the hands of Doğan Group’s Yay-Sat and Turkuvaz Group’s Turkuvaz Dağıtım Pazarlama.