Turkish News Agency-Cyprus (TAK)

Türk Ajansı Kıbrıs, the Turkish News Agency–Cyprus, is the official news agency of the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, recognised only by Türkiye. Based in North Nicosia, it published its first bulletin on 21 December 1973, following an initiative by the Provisional Turkish Administration of Cyprus. Its founding director was Sait Terzioğlu. Fehmi Gürdallı is Director, and Özgül Gürkut Mutluyakalı chairs its governing board.

Media assets

News agency: TAK, providing domestic and international news and supplying material to media organisations and other subscribers

Press-monitoring services: bulletins incorporating translations from Greek- and English-language newspapers

Subscribers and partners: TAK’s institutional description lists Turkish Cypriot newspapers and broadcasters, media in Türkiye, public authorities and international news organisations among its subscribers. It identifies Reuters and IRNA as international subscribers and describes cooperation agreements with Anadolu Agency, İhlas News Agency and the Azeri Press Agency.

Ownership and governance

TAK is a public-law institution with administrative autonomy, governed by Law 41/2011 on its establishment, duties and operating principles, as amended.

Article 7 provides for a nine-member Board of Directors, or Yönetim Kurulu:

Members elect the chair and deputy chair. Non-ex-officio members serve three-year terms, although appointing bodies may remove their nominees earlier.

TAK’s published masthead identifies Özgül Gürkut Mutluyakalı as Chair, Artun Çağa as Deputy Chair and Dr Fehmi Gürdallı as Director, listing nine board members.

Gürdallı succeeded Neriman Saygılı as Director in April 2018. His appointment, made by the President on the Council of Ministers’ proposal, was published in the Official Gazette of 4 April 2018. The directorship and board chairmanship are separate offices.

Source of funding and budget

TAK depends overwhelmingly on government funding, supplemented by a small amount of service income.

Its 2026 Budget Act, Law 65/2025, authorises expenditure of TRY 213,522,000. The service-income category does not provide a detailed breakdown by subscriber.

Editorial independence

TAK’s law contains express safeguards for independence and impartiality. Article 4 requires accuracy, impartiality and equal treatment. Article 8(3) declares the Board independent and prohibits outside bodies, authorities, individuals or political parties from giving orders or instructions concerning its publishing services.

Reported practice raises questions about whether those safeguards are effective. State Media Monitor’s previous assessment records local experts’ and journalists’ accounts of government control over TAK’s editorial output.

Professional ethics scrutiny has identified specific problems. The relevant body is the Turkish Cypriot Media Ethics Board, Medya Etik Kurulu, established through professional self-regulation in the north. Its findings should be attributed to that body.

On 28 March 2025 the board condemned TAK’s failure to report a teachers’ union protest outside Türkiye’s embassy in Nicosia. Its Decision 184 described the omission as unacceptable both under journalistic ethics and in relation to the public’s right to information.

On 22 April 2025 the board criticised TAK’s translation of Archbishop Georgios’s Easter message. It found that replacing a reference to occupiers with a general reference to Turks altered the context and risked encouraging hostility, and called on TAK to publish a correction.

Gürdallı disputed that finding. In his response published the same day, he maintained that the report conveyed the original meaning and that the difference did not warrant a correction.

AI and digital policy

No agency-specific, publicly available editorial policy on generative AI was identified in the materials reviewed.

Classification rationale

TAK remains classified State-Controlled (SC).

The authorities have substantial influence over its leadership and resources. Political appointments form a significant part of its governance, and government funding accounts for approximately 98.7 per cent of its approved 2026 financing.

The editorial assessment rests on reported practice despite statutory safeguards. State Media Monitor’s existing evidence records government influence over output, while the 2025 ethics findings document concerns about news selection and accuracy. The law’s explicit independence provisions must be acknowledged when explaining the classification.

September 2026