Soldiers in Argentina’s Gendarmerie police force raided the offices of Papel Prensa, the country’s top newsprint producer and the focal point of an ongoing conflict between the government and Clarín and La Nación, the two largest domestic dailies, EFE and DiarioJornada report.
The operation was ordered by Judge Alejandro Catania, who told police to seize the company’s files, reports the Center for Judicial Information (the judiciary's official news service). The warrant was part of an investigation into alleged irregularities in Papal Prensa’s finances, Télam explains.
According to EFE, Daniel Reposo, Argentina’s attourney general, said there is “documentation that shows that the balance sheets turned in over the entirety of Papel Prensa’s history are false.” The official also said that the government is investigating alleged “pressure on judges” by Clarín.
Papel Prensa is jointly owned by the government, Clarín, and La Nación. Before the raid, the newspapers released a statement calling the judicial ruling a “clear excess” that is “abusive and disproportionate” and constitutes “yet another episode in the persecution that the firm has been victim to over the last year and a half.”
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
