China plans to create new regulator for data governance

Body would also investigate various issues in the digital domain and identify data-security vulnerabilities. (AFP/File)
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Updated 06 March 2023
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China plans to create new regulator for data governance

  • Agency expected to oversee various data-related issues

LONDON: China is planning to create a new government agency to centralize management of the country’s vast stores of data, in a bid to address businesses’ data-security practices and streamline its regulatory structure, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
The new agency, which is set to become the top Chinese regulator on various data-related issues, will be discussed and approved at the National People’s Congress during its annual session on March 13, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The new national data bureau would set and enforce data-collection and sharing rules for businesses and decide whether multinational companies can export data generated by their operations in China, it said.
It would also investigate various issues in the digital domain and identify data-security vulnerabilities that are prone to cyberattack, the newspaper reported.
Chinese regulators recently eased some deadline pressure on multinational companies struggling to comply with new rules requiring them to seek approval to export user data.


Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ

Updated 03 March 2026
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Israel arrests 2 Turkish CNN journalists over live broadcast outside IDF HQ

  • Police said reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility
  • Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites

LONDON: Israeli police have arrested two Turkish CNN journalists who were broadcasting live outside the Israel Defense Forces’ headquarters in Tel Aviv.

Police said the pair were detained on suspicion of filming a sensitive security facility, according to the Israel Police Spokesperson’s Unit.

Reporter Emrah Cakmak and cameraman Halil Kahraman, from the network’s Turkish-language channel, had been reporting near the IDF’s Kirya military headquarters on Tuesday after Iran launched another missile barrage at Tel Aviv and other parts of central Israel.

During the live broadcast, two men believed to be soldiers approached the crew and seized the reporter’s phone, according to initial reports and a video circulating online that could not be independently verified.

Police said officers were dispatched after receiving reports of two people carrying cameras and allegedly broadcasting in real time for a foreign outlet.

Israel’s long-standing military censorship system, overseen by the IDF Military Censor, has long barred journalists and civilians from publishing material deemed harmful to national security.

Since the Gaza war began, restrictions have expanded significantly, including tighter limits on filming soldiers on duty and sensitive or strategic sites.

After a series of similar incidents involving foreign media — most of them Palestinian citizens of Israel working for Arab-language and international media, along with foreign journalists — during the 12-Day War, Israeli police halted live international broadcasts from missile impact sites, citing concerns that exact locations were being revealed.

The Government Press Office later imposed a blanket ban on live coverage from crash and impact areas.

Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir subsequently ordered that all foreign journalists obtain prior written approval from the military censor before broadcasting — live or recorded — from combat zones or missile strike locations.

Police said that when officers asked the CNN Turk crew to identify themselves, they presented expired press cards and were taken in for questioning.

Burhanettin Duran, head of Turkiye’s Directorate of Communications, condemned the arrests as an attack on the press and said Ankara is working to secure the journalists’ release.