British actor Jeremy Irons will head the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival next month, organizers said Thursday.
Irons will be jury president at the festival's 70th edition, running from Feb. 20 to March 1. Other members of the jury haven't yet been named.
Irons' screen and stage career started in the 1970s. He won a best actor Oscar in 1991 for his role in "Reversal of Fortune" and had acclaimed performances in films including "the French Lieutenant's Woman" and "The Mission" as well as the 1981 TV miniseries "Brideshead Revisited."
Irons said in a statement released by festival organizers that he was taking on the festival role "with feelings of great pleasure and not inconsiderable honor."
"With his distinctive style, Jeremy Irons has embodied some iconic characters that have accompanied me throughout my journey in cinema, making me aware of the complexity of human beings," Carlo Chatrian, the festival's artistic director, said.
This year's festival is the first under the leadership of Chatrian, who previously headed the Locarno film festival, and executive director Mariette Rissenbeek. The duo replaced Dieter Kosslick, who directed the event for 18 years.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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