The Constitutional Court handed down a pilot ruling regarding the public ad cuts imposed by the Press Advertisement Institution (BİK) on daily Cumhuriyet, Sözcü, BirGün and Evrensel. Reviewing the 14 individual applications made by the four newspapers in a single file, the top court concluded that the fines violated freedom of press and expression. The Constitutional Court also concluded that the violations stemmed from a structural problem and that the problem was systematic. Accordingly, the top court ruled that the ruling should be sent to the Parliament so that Article 49 of the Law no. 195, underlying the BİK fines, would be amended (August 10).

The BİK released a statement and said that it evaluated the Constitutional Court ruling and decided not to include the applications as per the Press Moral Principles in its meeting agenda until the related law article was amended (August 11).