Basın Müzesi (Türkiye Gazeteciler Cemiyeti)

The Press Museum, on Divanyolu Caddesi in Çemberlitaş, is the country's first press museum and is run by the Journalists' Association of Turkey. The building rises beside the tram line, right next to Cağaloğlu, which was for many years the centre of the Istanbul press. The museum opened on 9 May 1988. The Journalists' Association of Turkey, which runs the museum, is a professional body founded in 1946, and the museum opened its doors in the forty second year of the association. According to the association's 2025 statement, the museum, together with its library, continues to attract great interest from visitors. The building The building was commissioned in 1865 by the Minister of Education Saffet Paşa as a four storey structure in the neoclassical style. The English Wikipedia attributes the design to the Swiss architect brothers Gaspare and Giuseppe Fossati; Turkish sources do not name an architect. The building first served the Ministry of Public Education and the Darülfünun, regarded as the first Ottoman university. In the reign of Abdülhamid II it was allocated to the censorship board. In 1908 it was transferred to the Şehremaneti, the Istanbul Municipality, and was used by various municipal departments until 1983. In 1983 the mayor of the time, Abdullah Tırtıl, and the board of the Journalists' Association under Nezih Demirkent decided to turn the building into a press museum. It was restored between 1984 and 1988 and opened as the Press Museum on 9 May 1988. With its rows of arched windows and corner pilasters, its facade is one of the most imposing 19th century buildings on Divanyolu. Collection The press history section opens the story that began with İbrahim Müteferrika's printing house in 1729 with a model of the press. Examples of lithography, proof presses dated 1870 and the Vekayi-i Mısriye newspaper of 1828 are in the first showcases. On the typesetting and printing machinery floor are a 19th century binding press, an embossing machine, a flatbed press, a letterpress machine dated 1892, a rotary press, a paper guillotine and the machines of the Anadolu Agency. Radiophoto, telephoto and telex machines and old typewriters show how the news once travelled. Personal belongings of journalists such as Abdi İpekçi, Sedat Simavi, Burhan Felek and Sabiha Sertel stand in separate showcases. More than sixty oil and charcoal portraits spread over the floors recall those who gave their labour to the Turkish press. The Gallery of Murdered Journalists brings together the photographs of 67 journalists killed while on duty, without distinction of viewpoint. The Cevat Fehmi Başkut Art Gallery on the second floor opens its six rooms to temporary exhibitions. On the third floor are the library, archive and documentation centre and the hundred seat Nezih Demirkent Hall. The library has served researchers since 1998 and, according to the association's 2025 statement, holds thirty thousand books on journalism and communication. Its newspaper collection reaching from 1830 to the present and its magazine archive beginning in the 1870s are a resource consulted by everyone researching the press in Turkey. Visiting According to the Association's page, the museum floor can be visited only on weekdays, at certain hours in the afternoon, and admission is free. The association's announcement of June 2025 reports that a collection exhibition opened at the museum; in other words, the museum was an institution open to visitors at that date. Be sure to check before your visit whether the museum is open today and what the current hours are, on the website of the Journalists' Association of Turkey or by telephone; visiting arrangements at museums run by civil society organisations change often. Written application in advance is required for group visits. The library is also open on weekdays; publications are read on the premises and are not lent out. Begin your visit in the press history section, then go up to the machinery floor; thinking about today's flow of news beside machines a hundred years old is the museum's strongest effect. Even if the museum is closed, the building can be seen from Divanyolu; its facade can be photographed in full from the pavement across the tram line. Getting there and around The Çemberlitaş stop of the T1 tram is in front of the building; the Sultanahmet and Beyazıt stops are also within walking distance. The Column of Constantine, the Çemberlitaş Bath and the Grand Bazaar are neighbours reached in a few minutes' walk. Going down the Cağaloğlu slope you can continue to the Tanpınar Literature Museum Library in the Alay Köşkü and to Gülhane Park.