Radio

The Israeli state radio and television networks went off the air Wednesday after broadcast journalists began a strike over wages and work conditions. The blackout, which did not affect Armed Forces Radio and Educational Television, came at the start of Israel’s seven-day Sukkot festival, when special entertainment shows are broadcast. The broadcasters want a 20% pay increase--similar to one recently granted print journalists--but management says the workers are bound by a public sector wage freeze imposed under the government’s economic recovery program.