This was in a simulated press conference on the 7 and 8 of April 2021, at the ESIG amphitheatre.
As part of their professional training, students of the Advanced School of Mass Communication Asmac, took part in a military press conference and briefing organised by Senior Officers on Internship at the Yaounde International War School better known by its French acronym ESIG. The conference was on a fictional crisis situation in the Fanfan Island.
Organised by the lecturers and professors of both institutions, the students and officers were to be graded hence were expected to be on their best behaviour. The first session on Wednesday April 7 started with a briefing on the situation and the role of the military.
This was followed by a question and answer session on which the student journalists questioned the senior officers from across Africa and Europe on their military activities on the Island, and financial mismanagements.
The second session on Thursday April 8 was rather tensed. The student journalists bombarded the senior officers with all sorts of questions, ranging from the increase of teenage pregnancy in the Fanfan Island, the capturing of their General, the whereabouts of seized weapons from armed fighters to accusations of abuse of power through rape, unlawful killings of unarmed civilians, women and children, and exactly how long military investigations last and those in charge of varying out investigations.
Though a training and a fictional crisis, both students and officers were asked to act as though it was real. This was to permit the senior officers on Internship get acquainted with the media and how to respond to their questions and sometimes attacks in a professional way.
On the part of the final year student journalists, this exercise was to enable them know how to ask questions in press conferences and the type of questions to ask when facing the military.
This comes a few weeks after the senior officers had visited Asmac for television and radio interviews.
Source 237campus.com
