BUENOS AIRES, (Reuters) – Scores of tax officials  raided Argentina’s biggest newspaper yesterday, intensifying a  fierce battle between the government and one of Latin America’s  largest media groups.

More than 150 tax inspectors searched the Buenos Aires  building housing the offices of daily Clarin, which is owned by  media and telecommunications company Grupo Clarin, and removed  files and documents.

The raid comes as center-left President Cristina Fernandez is  pushing a media reform bill that analysts say will weaken Grupo  Clarin’s role as the dominant media company in Argentina.

An opposition lawmaker said the tax operation damaged  Fernandez’s argument that her bill is aimed at bringing more  democracy and competition to the media sector.

“There are no more doubts about what the bill’s aims are. It’s  meant to damage an economic group and not to help citizens,”  Deputy Julian Obiglio, head of the center-left PRO party in the  lower house, said in a statement.

Fernandez and her husband and predecessor, former president  Nestor Kirchner, have increased state intervention in some sectors  of the economy and have clashed with the agricultural industry  over farm policy.