Not the Usual Brit Abroad: BBC's Rob Cameron's Spin on the Czech Republic ****************************************************************************************** * Not the Usual Brit Abroad: BBC's Rob Cameron's Spin on the Czech Republic ****************************************************************************************** Meeting Rob Cameron, the BBC “stringer” correspondent for the Czech Republic and Slovakia mix-up of two different worlds for me: home and abroad. It was a unique opportunity to gai to the ambitious world of journalism, careers in mass media and a home away from home: “be at the biggest public broadcasting service of the UK. It's the face of breaking news, curr my laptop homepage that I check obsessively every few hours. Besides my avid interest in p also yet to meet a successful Brit in the Czech Republic... I attended a talk organised by Charles University in Prague and hosted by the ECES Program eces.ff.cuni.cz/"] under the Faculty of Arts. At the main building for East and Central Eu Cameron, who was born in London but has lived in the Czech Republic since the 1990's, led entertained me and other enthusiastic ECES students with a light presentation on his inter job and highlights of life in Prague, leaving most of his time with us in the hands of a j question and answer session. He was down-to-Earth and friendly in both approach and appear matching my expectations of a brisk, sharp, suited up British news presenter. The atmosphe was comfortable and his responses were peppered with crisp, dry British humour that I foun Cameron was a humble person, explaining that he was “stringer” or freelance journalist for affairs, offering stories to the BBC in London and other media organisations based across informal basis, permitting him flexibility concerning where he is and what he reports on. So, despite being on some level fish in the vast pond of journalism, he seems to have racked up quite a profile – investig numerous countries including Albania, Austria, Poland, Russia, Sweden and offering his res bosses – Deutsche Welle and Irish Radio to name a few. His career path is somewhat winding and unusual, starting off as an English teacher in 199 mind and no intentions of becoming a reporter. He pointed out that he had no journalistic and clarified my prior impressions of the field – that such positions often come about by connections and luck (his reflections and advice were always useful – this is rhetoric tha university students also spout when we are asked what our future occupation plans are by e awkward family dinners). After four years, Cameron advanced to learn Czech and became a tr editor in the Czech Republic, demonstrating how foreign language abilities definitely ease horizons of your career path especially if your interests like mine, lie in travelling and hopes of working and living abroad. It was surprising too but refreshing, to come across a another language fluently, as Brits have a habit of roaming around on their holidays expec airport staff to be the bilingual ones. Maybe it’s an education problem, maybe a cultural more successful examples like Cameron to be speaking out to young British people, promotin advantages and necessities of learning languages for your future. These were the stepping stones that lead Cameron to a career with a Czech news agency for then to English broadcasting Radio Prague, filling in for the lead news reporter before ta portfolio of reporting skills and experience, which is complied majoritively of radio rath work, opened the door for Cameron to a mixed, colourful life in freelance journalism – an self-reliant and adventurous job where “you get out what you put in” according to Rob. But free champagne and caviar – freelance reporting is unpredictable, irregular, precarious an knack for problem solving, thinking on your feet, smooth talking and improvisation. An ide a balance between interconnectedness with their freelance colleagues and a determined, com to cover the latest stories first. Organised and prepared, freelancers should push themsel their limits and avoid over-booking themselves or taking on stories they know nothing abou of getting work. Today, Cameron is busy offering stories to a number of bodies yet conside main bosses despite having a physically distant relationship with them whilst in Central-E Instead, he has a close kind ship with his European stringer colleagues built on co-operat for their assigned “territories” of coverage responsibility. Next, he gave us a personal account of the Czech political climate by taking us one by one key and latest BBC pieces. The depth of his knowledge and admiration for the Czech Republi throughout – he was particularly endeared by the recent “This is Prague Baby” YouTube sens cameraphone video of a young city police officer playing the public piano chained to the F building, a video which I'm sure all iForum readers have already watched, and that Rob Cam on. The aspects of the viral video which Cameron chose to discuss in his radio commentatio consise, witty reporting style and painted a delightful painting of Prague for listeners – spirit of the city, a positive international reception of Czech police and the university, and charm of the public pianos dotted around the city which have brought smiles to the fac workers and tourists alike, plus the obvious 2 million viewers online. The Faculty of Art' a daily joy for myself and the various students, visitors, passer-bys, smokers and early m drinkers of the Faculty of Arts. When Cameron spoke of why he chose to bring this small st platform of the BBC, he said “well... this was exactly what Prague was all about”. He didn this comment, but we all knew what he meant.  I remember thinking that in this respect – P cultural, historical and arty hotspot – he is very lucky. He specified on the radio show that the song played by the policeman was River Flows in Yo composer Yiruma and that the Czech police had released a light statement in response to th the on-duty officer, in which Cameron selected positive, humorous lines to quote: identify nameless officer to be a newbie to the force who should have been concentrating on his con but deserves praise for a talented performance that would gain the Czech cops a friendly f had a cross-cultural and optimistic approach to his work, clear to me in both the radio re explanation to us for giving the musical policeman BBC airtime: he wrapped up by saying it break from other news” in contrast to recent and unsettling broadcasts of unrest in Ukrain of the world, which was a true and uplifting comment to come from the mouth of a journalis him that amidst consistently distressing and dispiriting coverage, a positive spin on the through strange or fun or inspiring stories are welcomed with arms open by news audiences baby hysteria being one. It was extremely vexatious (Britain had briefly sold its public s madness; endless pregnancy timeline and Kate Middleton's maternity wear updates, conceptio diet tips, coupons for British flag baby clothes... in every magazine and newspaper – real at least a change. Moving onto Czech politics, you can find many of Cameron's articles accessible under the B and World subtitles on the homepage. Written in English, they're responsible for communica recent political activities in the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the outside world, mostl political debate, electoral analysis – he commentated the 2013 Czech legislative and presi – life and cultural events, although you can find some not-so-serious alternative politica the usual scandals, parliamentary tittle-tattle and and funny characters in the public eye I enjoyed listening to his fluency and understanding of Czech and Slovakian current affair and he taught me a fair deal on the party demographics and leading profiles, answering que had when I arrived in Prague for the first time during election campaigning in September. Czech Republic and Slovakia as “democratic and stable” in the eyes of political journalism to us his achievements, amusements and surprises in political life here and the events we him to address as the BBC correspondent. It seems his “typical day” is unpredictable, vari fails to tickle his sense of humour – from close-up election coverage to politicians fight conferences, lobbies to David Černý's recent middle-finger protest art floating on the Riv outside Prague castle (I'm sure you've all witnessed it – see Cameron's article Czech Floa President Message [ URL "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-24607870"] if not). And by it, he knows Europe pretty well to say the least. Our group at the Centre of Central and Eastern European studies was small but this gave us and answer session (and shamed us of our knowledge of the Czech Republic) and sparked deba ourselves as we compared the medias and political participation in Britain, America and th It was a one-off chance to delve internally in to the sofa politics of our year abroad des to make more objective observations about the politics, order and culture in our home coun with a positive impression of the ECES students and their study program, as their knowledg in to Central and Eastern Europe was reconcilable with Cameron's and their questions hones Despite getting lost on the way, I was very glad I turned up to such a unique opportunity successful journalist in such an intimate environment, spill the beans on a controversial famous broadcasting organisation for the for aspiring authors and politicians in the room. inspiring to meet a prolific Brit in the Czech Republic and hopefully his constructive adv me from being a monolingual unaccomplished writer. We forget as university students someti these kind of face-to-face opportunities come our way, and take for granted the bodies tha us – what we can learn from them is endless. Poppy Gerrard-Abbott is an Erasmus student studying BA write for the iForum to build on her journalism skills Czech culture and life in Prague through attending loc Poppy saw the iForum as an exciting opportunity to pur experience that has brought some exciting opportunitie such placements to future students.