Argentina Charges Top Newspaper Executives

Argentina's government filed criminal charges against executives of the country's two leading newspaper companies, Grupo Clarin SA and La Nacion SA. The government charged the executives with breaking a number of laws in 1976 when the companies bought the newsprint paper company Papel Prensa SA from members of the Graiver family.

The government accuses the executives of human-rights violations, saying they colluded with Argentina's 1976-1983 dictatorship to force the Graiver family to sell the company against their will. Members of the Graiver family have given conflicting accounts about the circumstances surrounding the sale. In a 191-page document filed with the court Tuesday, the government accused Grupo Clarin's president and chief executive, Hector Magnetto, of threatening in 1976 to kill Lidia Papaleo, the widow of David Graiver, one of the owners of Papel Prensa, if the family didn't sell the paper producer to the newspaper companies. Mr. Graiver died in an accident three decades ago in Mexico. The government has based its charges in part on testimony Ms. Papaleo provided to government investigators investigating human-rights abuses during the regime of Jorge Rafael Videla.