Athens - Greece suffered a news blackout for five hours on Tuesday after the country's journalists walked off the job, joined by telecom workers who are protesting the government's plans to revamp the pension system.

The work stoppages call by the journalists' union would affect all television and radio broadcasts until 4 pm (1300 GMT) while workers at the country's telecoms company are also on a one-day strike.

Unions representing nearly 3 million public and private sector workers have launched a wave of strikes over the past few months to protest proposed pension reforms, which look to increasing retirement ages while cutting benefits to millions of future retirees.

Workers claim the state has depleted the system by taking money from pension funds and not paying out what it has collected from workers over the years.

The Greek government has made reforming the state's pension system a priority, saying that unless drastic measures were taken it will go bankrupt within a decade. (dpa)