Sánchez is a Panamanian journalist with 20 years of experience who visited the BYU School of Communications on November 6, 2017. He currently serves as president of the National Council of Journalists in Panama and came to Utah for the annual conference of the Inter-American Press Association.
Although Sánchez is well aware of the challenges faced by journalism, including government censorship, threats of violence, changes in the financial model and technological change, he believes the core role of journalists continues to be vital. But both journalists and news consumers must be selective about the media they consume.
“What the journalist has to do is look for ways to publish the truth,” he said while meeting with BYU journalism students. “If a medium gives you the opportunity to publish the truth, use it. If not, look for another one.”
As a leader among Panamanian journalists, Sánchez represents the broad interests of the professional but remains focused on a particular public interest role of journalism.
“We should help the community in general to read news that is deep and important,” he said. “People used to sit down with a newspaper on a bench in the park and read a newspaper because the content was important and deep. Journalists should return to this world of information that is complete and of public interest.”
Sánchez has seen a lot of changes in journalism in the two decades since he started as a radio announcer. He has traveled to China, Cuba and now the United States to study and teach journalistic skills and principles. He says journalists in the past lacked technological tools but that forced them to be precise and focused. Today’s journalists can easily be distracted by tabloid news and social media.
But he still thinks the future for journalism merits optimism as long as the focus remains on how to serve the public where it’s needed. For example, he says, journalists can still bring attention to social problems, even small and local ones like lack of clean water in a community. Journalism still carries heft and credibility with public officials to fix those problems, he said.