Our special guest is the most recognized journalist throughout Panama, as well as the producer of the daily and noon newscast of the TVN television channel. The professionalism and charisma with which she has carried out important interviews with national and international personalities have earned her multiple accolades. The integrity with which she has handled communication throughout her career has made her worthy of the “Influence on National Reality” award given by the regional strategic communication company CCK Central America to personalities who generate the most credibility in the population.
For The Visitor – El Visitante, it is a privilege to have Castalia Pascual in an exclusive interview, a communication professional with the reach and credibility of few in our country, and who reserved time for us in her busy schedule to talk about managing communication at all levels as well as tourism and the future challenges facing our country.
Within your professional analysis, what is the perception of people around Panama, is the required communication being developed?
“The perception of Panamanians is that we are a great country, with many defects and many things to fix. I feel that what characterizes us historically is that we have been able to come out of our worst conflicts and situations as terrible as the post-invasion after a military dictatorship, and we have been able to redesign our country towards where we want to go. But obviously in this short democracy in which we have given the confidence to restructure this country to different people who have come with the interest of making changes, and mistakes have been made. And the perception that there is at this moment is that the great country that we have is being lost, it is getting out of hand and that the time to fix it is shortening, that in my opinion is the perception that the Panamanian has. ”
As a communicator with great experience and credibility like few others in Panama, how do you see the image of Panama abroad and if it goes with our social and economic reality?
“Internationally, when people mention Panama, they directly describe the Panama Canal, Roberto Duran, Mariano Rivera and the Panama Papers. The image of Panama has been badly hit in recent years and as a Panamanian State we have not been able to protect that image. At that moment those who had to do it when all these scandals have hit us because they did not do it the right way. And when I say that we have not done it the right way, I am talking about the government and the media. In the face of a scandal like the Panama Papers at the time, the Government needed to go out and defend Panama’s position, it lacked more willingness to show that Panama was taking the right steps. That it was necessary to improve, that it was necessary to change the rules but the steps were already being taken, and In the end, I think we have the consequences at this time of the image that the Panama Papers caused us.
We have a great opportunity to clear our name. This is a country of honest people, of honest businessmen, that there are people willing to stick to the rules that exist and demand to have authorities that do apply the laws that exist. Because if we are involved in the problems that we are involved in with the image we have, it is simply because there are those who have not enforced the laws that exist in Panama to enforce them.”
How do you see the communication work by the media to comprehensively communicate what is happening in Panama, whether it is good or bad? What would you like to suggest to improve it since sometimes it seems that only the bad is shown?
“We are in an era where people no longer consume what traditional media gives them. Studies indicate that people look for what is good and what they like, that is the phenomenon that has generated social networks and that has forced traditional media such as television channels, for example, to have to take make changes. An example: the pandemic taught us a great lesson and I describe the pandemic as the silent virus that was not only introduced and caused health issues, but was also a silent virus that was going to change our “chip”
People in the pandemic began to look for useful information, they were no longer interested in corruption cases, political scandals, or how much drugs was seized in the country and other information that is sometimes so toxic that it fills front pages and news content. People were looking for scientific information, on how to be an entrepreneur, how to regain hope to get ahead and that forced us to migrate. For example, in the news program that I direct we have called that content that is now mandatory: “Useful Information for your Life”. We have given value to that information but we have gone little by little, the media throughout these recent years have learned that talking about the environment, tourism, corporate social responsibility, science and health is also news that people enjoy. I can tell you that we have changed and the pandemic forced us to change and put information on our agenda that people if don’t find it in the traditional media (television, radio and press), they will look for it in what today is a highly competitive social network.
Communicating Panama to our people is the basic task to achieve a sense of belonging, pride in what is ours and desire to move forward. Do you feel that this work is being done? What could you suggest us to achieve it?
“Right now I think there isn’t a festival in the country that isn’t promoted. Panamanians and the media are watching from Sombrero Pintao Festival that is celebrated in La Pintada, to las Mil Polleras Parade, the Carnivals in La Tablas and Penonome, the new festivals that have appeared, the Coffee circuit. I insist, the pandemic did its job, because since we couldn’t go out we began to discover what we had, a Panamanian town forced into confinement began to do local tourism and began to discover places, sites, towns, traditions that they did not know before. We must take advantage of this moment because we must find the mechanisms to promote it, to show beyond la Pollera that we traditionally show the world, beyond the Panama Canal, we must find a strategy, and hopefully those who govern us understand the importance of providing the Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Culture, with all the budget and resources that are required to be able to take advantage of the richness that we have.”
What do you suggest can be done so that organic and honest communication can give truth to any advertising campaign full of music, beautiful places and smiling models.
“We have to achieve as a country, that we believe in what we are, a country with great tourist offers, a country that has it all. First we have to work on the sense of belonging, Panama does not have a sense of belonging and we have to aim to work from local governments that identify their tourism areas from education, reinforce already existing plans in tourism education. Cooperativism must be remembered to underpin. Just as we love each Festival and each fair and we organize ourselves so that our town shines, we have to embrace that for the rest of the year, and that allows you to extend that community project that you have. If we do not appreciate what we have, it will be of no use, what is the use of having a great De Cameron, for example, at Rio Hato if we do not prepare the people in this town to take advantage of the number of tourists that were going to arrive at the time. What’s the use of having a great carnival in Las Tablas if you don’t project those who go to that carnival place, also other offers in the surrounding towns. What is the use of having those beautiful coasts in Colon if the people themselves do not have a sense of belonging and do not have the capacity or the orientation to organize themselves and offer them, from some cabins or their own home. We need to believe in what we have, prepare ourselves to project and show what we have. Live each tradition and culture 365 days a year in each town and region of Panama.
Given the latest events that have happened in our country, do you feel that you have communicated objectively? How can the media improve communication before this type of event to help achieve a better understanding between all parties?
“What we have experienced in the last two months with the crisis that was experienced has been unique in the country’s history, I am not saying it, experts on the subject have said it. And I think that the communication was very responsible, because all of us in charge of communicating to the country what was happening were able to understand the magnitude of what was going on and knew how a timely communication could either fan the flame of what was happening or appease them and reach to the understandings that fortunately we have reached.
For example, what happened in Veraguas, when we saw that the situation was getting out of hand there were two things, we as the responsible media outlet knew that the rating numbers were going to skyrocket if we maintained a sustained broadcast of what was happening there, with burned Police patrols and everything else. And it is not censorship, it is responsibility, instead we looked for the spokespersons to make the call for peace, to listen, to sit down and dialogue. It was quite a delicate job and I think the media played a decisive role in preventing this from happening any further. In this crisis we had to learn to find a balance and find that midpoint until we finally managed to reduce the protests. The objective beyond communicating was to seek peace, and it was not a question of a medium, it was a question of a country that said “damn” this is not going in the right direction. We are a country of peace, we may have a thousand defects, as a country and as a society we have been able to make thousands of mistakes, but we are a country of peace.”
How would you like to see Panama before the eyes of a tourist and a national?
“From a tourist … in love with a country I have always wanted to return to or, in the best of cases, the one he came to and wants to stay and live. A country that offers you the quality of its people, the joy of its folklore, the simplicity of its peoples and the courage of its people. And that Panamanians see Panama as the best country that God could have chosen for them to be born, proud of what we were, what we are and what we are going to become. I would like to see a Panamanian proud of who we are and determined to love his country by making the changes that we all have to make from the place where we have to do our work.”
