Liberation in Paris

Liberation in Paris Agence France-Presse, with 2,200 clients in 44 countries, boasts that it is one of the world's biggest news agencies. But it does no boasting about another distinction : it is the only major wire service in the free world that has been largely government-supported. Founded after the liberation to succeed prewar Havas, which the Nazis liquidated in 1941, A.F.P. was forced to go to the government for money --and accept government slanting of news --because struggling Paris dailies could not meet the agency's full operating costs.

By 1954, political pressure on A.F.P. had become so powerful that when brawny (6 ft. 2 in., 200 Ibs.) ex-Havasman Jean Marin took over as its news director, he vowed to win "complete independence from the public power." Last week, under a bill passed by the French Senate, A.F.P. set up its first autonomous board of directors, controlled by French newspaper editors. To help increase revenues to compensate for discontinued government subsidies, which in 1956 totaled 50% of the agency's $8,600,000 budget, France's 146 dailies will be charged up to 30% more for A.F.P. service, in line with commercial rates charged overseas customers.

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