(IPYS/IFEX) – On 17 and 20 October 2008, a group of parents of schoolchildren who attend the Santo Domingo Savio school in Cochabomba, central Bolivia, stopped personal from the UNITEL network’s local television station from entering the school’s facilities as a protest against a report which showed a young woman saying that drugs are used […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 17 and 20 October 2008, a group of parents of schoolchildren who attend the Santo Domingo Savio school in Cochabomba, central Bolivia, stopped personal from the UNITEL network’s local television station from entering the school’s facilities as a protest against a report which showed a young woman saying that drugs are used inside the school.
The parents were upset because they said the television station did not present the school’s version of events. Representatives of the group agreed to let the media workers back in if they declared the story to be untrue.
Patricia Siles, the host of the “Telepaís” news programme, admitted to the National Press Association (Asociación National de la Prensa, ANP) that the news was broadcasted without the school’s version because school personnel refused to tell their side of the story.
UNITEL’S news editor, Lizeth Zambrana, said the station is willing to broadcast the parents’ and school representatives’ version. The parents’ association, however, has demanded a public retraction of the story.
