MARION, Kansas (NEWSnet/AP) — Even without the computers, cellphones and other office equipment taken in a police raid, the weekly edition of the Marion County Record made it to newsstands Wednesday.

“SEIZED … but not silenced,” read the front-page headline in 2-inch-tall typeface.

Police raids on Friday of the newspaper's offices, and the home of editor and publisher Eric Meyer put the paper and the local police at the center of a national debate about press freedom, with watchdog groups condemning the police actions.

The attention continued Wednesday — with TV and print reporters joining the conversation in what is normally a quiet community of about 1,900 residents.

The raids — which the publisher believes were carried out because the newspaper was investigating the police chief’s background — put Meyer and his staff in a difficult position. Because their computers were seized, they were forced to reconstruct stories, ads and other materials. Meyer also blamed stress from the raid at his home on the death Saturday of his 98-year-old mother, Joan, the paper’s co-owner.

As the newspaper staff worked late into Tuesday night on the new edition, the office was so hectic that Kansas Press Association Executive Director Emily Bradbury was helping to answer phones and order meals for staffers.

Bradbury said the journalists and those involved in the business of the newspaper used some old computers that police didn’t confiscate, taking turns to get stories to the printer, to assemble ads and to check email.

“There were literally index cards going back and forth,” said Bernie Rhodes, the newspaper’s attorney, who was also in the office. “They had all the classified ads, all the legal notices that they had to recreate. All of those were on the computers.”

Many people from around the country have purchased subscriptions since the raids; an office manager told Bradbury that she’s having a hard time keeping up with demand.

The raids exposed a divide over local politics and how the Record covers Marion, which is about 150 miles southwest of Kansas City.

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