European University Sports Association’s partnership with AIPS Europe, the European body of the International Sports Press Association, is still flourishing, as stated by the association’s president Mr Charles Camenzuli. AIPS Europe has been an official partner of EUSA since 2016, offering their support and collaborating on a number of different projects, as Mr Camenzuli reflected on the pair’s thriving relationship.

“When we came up with this idea of making a memorandum of understanding with EUSA, we always had this in mind,” Mr Camenzuli said. “At that time I was the Secretary General when it came up on our agenda. We then had a few official meetings before signing the memorandum of understanding, seeing which way AIPS Europe – representing the European media – could help in developing a journalistic culture among young journalists.” Considering the established and renowned association AIPS Europe is, their partnership with EUSA is seen as a major boost in assisting with press-related topics and training of future journalists, assistance which AIPS is more than willing to give.



“EUSA was the ideal platform because it reflects both young journalists who are still in the beginning of their careers, and those who are still studying journalism at university,” Mr Camenzuli continued. “We came to terms on how this mutual cooperation would work, which is also a result of what years ago, AIPS had started with FISU on a global level. That was ten years ago, and now we have also this relationship. Representing the European media and having European universities on board was always our aim, and I think we are on the right track. We can offer a lot of help through our expertise and our mentors when it comes to certain programmes, and even for the universities themselves, now they know where to refer to, to have the right production.”



Mr Camenzuli was present at the EUSA and EUSA Institute’s headquarters in Ljubljana last weekend as a representative from AIPS in showing support for the latest project in which they have partnered with EUSA. PRODUCE (PROmoting DUal Career through Education of young journalists), funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union, aims to create both an educational peer to peer network among young journalists in Europe while simultaneously providing guidelines for active learning, giving non-formal knowledge to budding reporters.
Camenzuli’s vast experience came to the fore at the project’s kick-off meeting as he offered his expertise in moving the project forward, while also proposing an AIPS-run workshop for young reporters at next year’s EUSA European Universities Games in Belgrade. Always willing to assist and lend an ear, Camenzuli noted this project’s importance for the betterment of future journalists.



“Projects like these are very important because the sport media profession is facing problems worldwide and European-wide, and is always challenging,” he said. “But having new journalists on board who already know what they are going to find in this profession, at least we can give them the proper guidelines of which way to go and how to work things out. Nowadays social media is taking over traditional journalistic aspects and we have to face that problem, but still it’s also a positive as nowadays you have the tools on how to work, and it’s up to the individual on how to develop those tools within his or her circle.”

With AIPS on board, young reporters involved in this project will no doubt receive expert advice and assistant which can only benefit their fledging careers in the long run. For more information about AIPS Europe, see their Facebook page.