The Press Advertisement Agency, which suspended Evrensel newspaper’s right to publish official announcements and advertisements in September 2019, has completely cancelled our right with its latest decision on unlawful grounds.
The Press Advertisement Agency (BİK) has cancelled our newspaper, Evrensel's right to publish official announcements and advertisements. Due to the official announcement and advertisement suspension decision taken in September 2019, our newspaper had been unlawfully suspended for 3 years. With the latest decision, this suspended right was completely cancelled. In the notification sent to our newspaper by the General Directorate of BIK, our readers' purchase of more than one newspaper from dealers, institutional subscriptions and the claim that the record books were not kept regularly were cited as grounds for the cancellation decision.
In its decision sent today, BİK stated that dealer audits were conducted on 19 July and administrative audits were conducted on 20 July. In the decision, which includes the results of the dealer inspections, the cancellation was justified by the fact that the subscription newspapers purchased by 13 different provincial and district organisations of the Labour Party (EMEP) and the newspapers sent to different newsstands in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and Kocaeli were taken in bulk by several people.
On 14 and 16 September 2019, BİK, claiming that it had conducted dealer inspections, cancelled our right to publish official announcements and advertisements on the grounds that our newspaper Evrensel "did not meet the minimum actual sales requirement of four thousand copies".
Another justification for BİK's decision usurping our right to receive advertisements is that various organisations subscribe to our newspaper.
The newspapers subscribed to our newspaper by the provincial and district organisations of the Labour Party and various municipalities were declared "irregular" on the grounds that these institutions "do not qualify as final dealers".
In addition, for the newspapers sold at dealers in the areas where our newspaper headquarters and offices are located, it was claimed that these sales were "irregular" on the grounds that "continuous sales were observed".
The Press Advertisement Agency also claimed that the daily sales and return information of our newspaper Evrensel was not regularly entered into the electronic record book during the period of the audit.
Finally, BİK said in its decision:
"Since it is understood that the newspaper did not resume the right to publish within six months, excluding the pandemic period between 23 March 2020 and 30 April 2022, when the legislative conditions were not sought by the Institution, on 28 September 2019, it has been decided to terminate the right to publish official announcements and advertisements of the daily newspaper Evrensel in accordance with subparagraph (a) of the first paragraph of Article 27 of the Regulation on Official Announcements and Advertisements and Periodicals to Publish Them."
Devrim Avcı, the lawyer of our newspaper Evrensel, reminded the pilot decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the advertisement fines imposed by the Press Advertisement Agency. Stating that the decision emphasised that the fines were clearly unconstitutional, Avcı said:
"The fact that the institution has interfered with the freedom of the press is already clearly stated in the last decision of the Constitutional Court. The Press Advertisement Agency acts like a press court, press prosecutor and press judge close to the government. That is how it makes its decisions. There is such an 'us or the enemy' approach. The issuance of journalists' cards, the monitoring of advertisements, the fines imposed..."
Stating that BİK has an almost hostile attitude towards Evrensel, Avcı said, "BİK, both with the advertisement penalties it imposes and with its constant monitoring and 'trying to look for loopholes', I think that BİK examines and makes decisions against Evrensel newspaper with a hostility. In the decision we received, it says that it inspects dealers, that more than one newspaper is bought, etc. It criminalised buying newspapers in solidarity with Evrensel against the embargo on advertisements. This is one side. It is also a double standard. For example, I don't believe that Hürriyet, Yenişafak or Sabah... I mean, I don't believe that any other newspaper that receives advertisements is bought from individual dealers all over Turkey, that it is inspected in this way. Should we think that all pro-government newspapers are bought and read by individual readers? Is a similar practice applied to the pro-government newspapers we see in bales in public institutions?" he asked.
Avcı finally said the following:
"In fact, the newspapers that are bought more than once from these dealers are bought within the scope of solidarity campaigns that started due to the embargo of BİK. In other words, they are saying, 'I am both economically strangling you, putting all kinds of obstacles in your way, and preventing your readers from solidarising with you'. What does this mean? 'I want to prevent you from publishing'! We will of course resort to all legal remedies against this, we will object. There will be a lawsuit process. If not, the Constitutional Court, the ECHR... No matter how many years it takes, we will be following this matter."
The Constitutional Court, in the grounds of its violation decision issued on 10 August regarding the advertisement cut-off fines imposed by BİK on Evrensel, BirGün, Cumhuriyet and Sözcü newspapers, stated that freedom of the press and freedom of expression had been violated and that this was due to structural problems, and ruled that the Parliament should be informed about this.
Emphasising that the freedom of expression of the press was violated, the Constitutional Court had also stated that "it has been observed that the decisions of the Press Advertisement Agency have gone beyond the purpose of regulation and turned into a means of punishment that may have a deterrent effect on some members of the press and this situation has caused a systematic problem".
With this decision, the Constitutional Court stated that the conditions regarding the penalties for official announcements and advertisements should be framed, the article of the law should be reorganised in terms of form and substance with expressions that are clear and precise, and that there is a systematic problem with BİK's evaluations. (EVRENSEL DAILY)
Ceren Sözeri
Yusuf Karadaş
Aras Coşkuntuncel