The Observatory for Foreign and National Press (Open) and the International Relations Institute, IRIC, on Friday 16 January 2015 in Yaounde organised the second edition of Cameroon Press Forum under the theme “Days of the African Nations Cup Equatorial Guinea 2015 in Cameroon”.

The Cameroon Press Forum (CPF) accordingly provided the opportunity for students of IRIC to exchange ideas on how football can be used to strengthen or weaken relationship between countries.

According to Francoise Herve Moudourou, Executive Secretary of OPEN, the organisation is a think tank which plays the role of incubator of ideas for projects and programmes. The organisation of Cameroon Press Forum Program (CPF) is one of such programmes organised to project Cameroon to the outside world in fine taste.

The Cameroon Press Forum, Moudourou explained, is also a platform to enable media professionals have frank and open exchanges with members of the government, economic operators, diplomats and all those whose activities have an impact on the development and the image of Cameroon outside the country.

The forum in IRIC campus provided student diplomats the opportunity to better understand the importance of sports in diplomacy. Coming on the heels of the beginning of the African Nations Cup competition in Equatorial Guinea, students were drilled on the intricacies of how such competitions were organised and the various actors involved.

Joe Chebonkeng of CRTV, Professor Vincent Ntude Ebode, Director General of CREPS and Indomitable Lions team manager all gave talks on the organisation of international football competition.

OPEN also announced plans in the coming days, to launch Club Correspondents of Foreign Press (CCPE), a network of journalists specialised in the treatment of current affairs and international issues.

According to OPEN, the CCPE is a platform for the beaming of Cameroon in the international scene and also contribute to the consolidation of a Cameroonian press.

The Cameroon Press Forum in Yaounde was in its second edition. The first edition organised in Yaounde centered around the World Cup in Brazil 2014, brought together an audience including senior officials, artists, athletes, supporters of the Indomitable Lions and journalists from the national and foreign press.

This was done through the projection of the World Cup games at St Joshua opposite the Ahmadou Ahidjo Stadium. They also organised a public panel discussion on “Relations between Africa and Brazil.”

The same activities will be organised this year throughout the African Nations Cup.