Journalists Strike Over Tax Privileges

French public broadcasters and news agencies were badly hit when journalists staged a 24-hour walkout in protest against government plans to scrap their 62-year-old tax privileges. A leader of the journalists’ union said the 30% tax break was part of their professional status, instituted to compensate for work expenses. The strike restricted French-language services of news agencies Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters. Staff members at the newspaper Le Monde voted not to join the strike, but many other newspapers, especially regional ones, will not appear today because of the job action.