The Timişoara syndrome and the Panama invasion: communication, public relation and the sensitive issue of the death toll[articol]

Abstract

At the end of 1989 two important events were marking the world’s media reality: the revolution in Romania which started in Timişoara, and the American invasion of Panama. It is somehow surprising that the American journalists were rather interested in the anticommunist protests in Romania, in the confrontations with the repressive forces here, than in the course of military actions in South America, a region geographically much closer. There are several explanations for this focus of attention, of which we are mentioning two: 1) uncertainty in the conflict between the citizens of Romania and the country’s leadership. The victory of revolutionary forces which claimed democratic changes seemed a utopia compared to the certainty shown by the American structures in the success of the action in the capital city of Panama; 2) the simplicity of the American invasion as compared to the complexity of the situation in Romania. In the first case, invasion was supported ideologically and by well trained troops, equipped with modern gear. In the second, weapons were in the hands of repressive troops, while the revolutionaries had on their side justness of cause and... nothing more.