News 13:00

BULLETIN 5 March 1 pm

Good afternoon. I am……..

In this bulletin:

# The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission probes the extent of a data breach
# Sanef calls for big tech companies to be held accountable
# And soccer: Australia’s women’s captain pleads not guilty to a racially aggravated offence in Britain

# The Companies and Intellectual Property Commission says it has launched an investigation to determine the extent of exposure of the recent data breach. The company’s official database was hacked, and certain personal information of its employees and clients was unlawfully accessed and exposed. The agency of the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition is urging clients to be vigilant in the monitoring of credit card transactions. The Information Regulator says as of January this year, it has received 224 security compromise notifications.

# The South African National Editors Forum has urged the Competition Commission to hold big firms such as Google and Meta, to more stringent rules for the publishing and distribution of news content. The forum made a submission to the commission’s media and digital platforms market enquiry in Pretoria. United Nations body UNESCO’s director for freedom of expression and media development, Guy Berger, supported Sanef’s submission, saying news producers are legally liable for the content they produce, but big technology companies can dodge responsibility:

# ActionSA in Ekurhuleni on the Gauteng East Rand says the council meeting which the EFF collapsed last week Thursday must reconvene urgently. The meeting was scheduled to debate an ActionSA-sponsored motion of no confidence against mayor Sivuyile Ngodwana, among other items. However, the meeting descended into chaos when EFF councillors started heckling, throwing bottles of water around, and fist fights broke out, predominantly between ANC and EFF members. ActionSA’s Andrew Harris says Ngodwana will be removed from office:

# The estate of late Irish singer and songwriter Sinéad O’Connor has requested former US president Donald Trump not to use her music in his re-election campaign. He played her hit Nothing Compares to You at a rally in Maryland last month. A spokesperson told BBC News it was no exaggeration to say O’Connor would have been disgusted, hurt and insulted to have her work misrepresented in this way by someone she described as a ‘biblical devil’. She died at the age of 56 last year.

# Soccer: Australia and Chelsea striker, Sam Kerr, has pleaded not guilty to alleged racially aggravated harassment of a London police officer. The 30-year-old was charged with using insulting, threatening or abusive words, that caused alarm or distress to a police officer during an incident in Twickenham in January. Kerr, who is Australia’s record goalscorer with 64 goals in 125 games, will stand trial in February next year. Soccer Australia CEO, James Johnson, says these are serious allegations, and there is no place for racism in the sport.

# And the financial indicators: The dollar trades at 19-rand-6-cents and the euro at 20-rand-69-cents. One British pound costs 24-rand-18-cents and Bitcoin trades at 66-thousand-578-dollars-91-cents. Gold sells at two-thousand-124-dollars-25-cents a fine ounce and Brent crude oil is quoted at 82-dollars-75-cents a barrel.

Stay tuned for more news………….