Original article: «Que los adultos profesionales por fin den el ejemplo y paren de tergiversar y mentir»: Estudiantes del Instituto Nacional acusan a medios de criminalizarlos y falsear información

Students at Instituto Nacional Demand Accountability from Media for Misrepresentation and Criminalization

In a public statement, the Student Center of Instituto Nacional accused a group of national media outlets of misrepresenting and criminalizing the student community. They detailed that recently, some «aired out-of-context snippets, misrepresented claims, labeling us with extremist ideologies and insinuating that we threaten state authorities with violence.»

The young people urged «professional adults in communications to take responsibility and stop sensationalizing and instrumentalizing us for their partisan interests, because here, in the Student Center of Instituto Nacional, there is no room for petty interests that harm politics. Here, in the IN that we represent, the only focus is on strengthening public education. All else is the exploitation and abuse by adults profiting from spreading false information regarding partisan interests that we do not hold.»

Among the criticized media outlets are Chilevisión, The Clinic, El Líbero, Radio Agricultura, and Radio Biobío.

«On the past Thursday, December 18, Biobío Chile published a note linking masked individuals with an alleged protest against the new Student Center. We categorically state that this assertion is false,» they noted in their statement.

The students emphasized that «there is no call, invitation, or endorsement that could suggest this action was against our student project. These events are completely unrelated to our organization and the IN community,» they specified.

«We urge the media and journalist David Vergara to clarify the published information, reminding them of the seriousness of playing with false information when it involves minors,» reads the statement, which you can read in full HERE.

«Stop Misrepresenting and Lying»

«We urgently call for an improvement in the quality of public debate, and for professional adults to finally set an example by stopping misrepresentation and lies. In our Student Center, we are not interested in their fanaticism; instead, we put at the center the great goal of serving a community that deserves respect,» stated the students of IN.

In this regard, they emphasized that «if these or any other media want to know about our leadership, they can contact us, invite us to talk and debate, instead of distributing pamphlets that are not ours and that they fabricate from the distance of their offices.»

«Media like these, while they claim to speak of peace, do not contribute to the fight against violence by publishing articles that only exacerbate poor coexistence and hateful rhetoric towards minors,» they criticized.

El Ciudadano