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THE OMBUDSMAN INSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF TÜRKİYE

and services converge quite closely, and significant advances have been made in the
development of technologies that enable users to have access to multiple services at
once.
Moreover, the freedom of the press, deeply affects the public’s ability to receive
news and develop opinions. In particular, the role of this freedom in the democratic
formation of social opinion is of great importance. In this regard, the freedom of the
press and the activities of the media organisations need to be meticulously addressed.
However, it is known that both citizens and administrations in the media sector have
complaints about certain issues. Indeed, in this context, various applications are lodged
to our Institution concerning particularly press.

Case Summary
About the Ticket Sales of Orient Express

The applicants stated that it was impossible to find a ticket for Orient Express, the
journey of which was between Ankara and Kars, that the practices of ticket sales
violated the “principle of transparency” because even if the train tickets were up for
sale 30 days prior to the departure, the time when they were marketed was unclear;
in addition, the tickets up for sale were bought by tour companies, which sold the
tickets for the journeys of many months later and within a package tour programme
for outrageous prices. Claiming that citizens were condemned to these companies and
their right to travel was violated, the applicants requested that the date and time of
ticket sales be announced on the official website, restrictions be placed on the amount
of the tickets sold to tour companies, more than one ticket sale to the same person be
prohibited, number of trips be increased and additional carriages be provided.

As a result of the examination conducted on the application, it was concluded to submit
29
a Recommendation to the General Directorate of Turkish State Railways about
ensuring consistency in the times the tickets were available for sale by way of necessary
arrangements on the electronic system, selling tickets at a reasonable time, providing
sleeping cars or couchette cars instead of pullman cars in winter and providing
additional carriages within the bounds of technical possibility in order to satisfy the
increasing demand.

29 Recommendation dated 12/07/2019 on the application no. 2019/3015

102 2019 ANNUAL REPORT