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The Civil Guard burst this Saturday into the offices of Catalan weekly newspaper El Vallenc. The agents were looking for material related to the 1st October independence referendum.

Around half past eleven this morning, four agents of the Civil Guard entered the paper's premises in Valls, west of Barcelona. Inside for about three hours, El Nacional has learned they met with the editor. Meanwhile a dozen agents remained outside guarding the premises, faced by hundreds of protestors. The agents left at around 3pm.

The search came after the publication of suggestions that the newspaper was involved in the printing of ballot papers for 1st October.

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The agents also reportedly went to the paper's previous offices, which are currently empty.

There is currently an injunction on the order, so it is not known who ordered the search.

Relationship with the Constantí printers

This is the second time that the Civil Guard has entered a company looking for papers and material for the 1st October, after this Friday searching Indugraf Offset, a printing house in Constantí, about 16km south of Valls. Indugraf Offset prints El Vallenc, and sources from the newspaper suggest the operations are related.

Friday's search of the printers came after monitoring the facilities for 48 hours and ended with the Civil Guard leaving empty handed, having found nothing of interest. Nonetheless, the went back in this morning to look for any trace of documentation.

Protest called

As soon as word spread of the Civil Guard's actions, some 200 people gathered in front of the offices in protest. The Assemblea de Valls, CUP Valls and other organisations and private individuals called on the public to demonstrate against the search.

Translation: Gathering in front of El Vallenc to tell the Civil Guard that they won´t stop us 

Cascading reactions

Reactions from politicians and other civil leaders arrived quickly. Catalan president Carles Puigdemont said that "they can encircle local media outlets with the Civil Guard, but we'll overflow them with ballot boxes".

Also to comment was the vice-president, Oriol Junqueras, who denounced the Civil Guard for searching a media outlet, as such outlets are "the greatest symbol of freedom of expression and thought". He said that "the strength of democracy will make us overcome all obstacles".

Minister Dolors Bassa said that the search was "ridiculous". She also joked about the Civil Guard's strategy, wondering if the agents decided to go from a printing house to a media outlet by playing the Game of the Goose or Where's Wally.

The president of pro-independence organisation the Catalan National Assembly, Jordi Sánchez, said that "the Inquisition is still active against the freedom of the press" and that "we will vote".

The small city's mayor, Albert Batet, speaking to El Nacional described it as "surprising, amazing and absurd that, in the 21st Century, the Civil Guard should go after printers and media outlets". Via Twitter, he repeated his criticism of them "persecuting" printers and the media and gave his full support to the publication.