A girlfriend prompted journalist Rob Cameron’s move from his home in London to Prague in 1993. He landed a job teaching English to Czech students and became fluent in Czech. That opened the door to a new career as a translating editor for the Czech News Agency. Cameron also started working as a freelance journalist, eventually becoming a BBC correspondent in 2004. Now the BBC’s radio correspondent in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Cameron has reported on TV and Radio from a lengthy list of countries around the world, focusing on politics and human interest stories.
Q: In 2004 you became the permanent BBC correspondent for Prague and the Czech Republic. What led to that big break?
A: I did have this incredible year. That was the year of the Beslan tragedy in Moscow. I was sent to Moscow to help with the coverage there because it was such a huge story. I did find myself working for the English service at Czech Radio, and then all of a sudden being the BBC correspondent here. Within four or five months of getting the BBC job, being on a plane to Moscow in the midst of this developing story. That was certainly a very fast-moving time.
Q: What stands out among other big stories you covered?
A: I was here when Havel died, and I was the first BBC person to report on that simply because I was the only one here. I was part of a bigger team that was covering the funeral, but also stuff around the EU, Lisbon Treaty. I've done most of the stuff that's made the headlines here.
Q: What do you find the most rewarding about being a journalist?
A: You get access to great moments of history and drama unfolding, even though you're not a politician, you're not a historian, but you are in the room when it's happening. You're meeting the people who're making it happen, whether that be presidents or prime ministers I've interviewed, or artists like, Ai Weiwei or the Dalai Lama, or great historical figures who are more than just politicians. Whether it's the former spy who claimed that the British labor leader was an active informant of communist Czech/Slovak intelligence. I persuaded him to speak to me. I got the first TV interview with him, the only one actually, which was obviously massive news in Britain to have this guy make all these claims against the then-labor leader. Or when I did the first broadcast interview with the first female president of Slovakia, and I did the first broadcast interview in English with President Paval. That's what I'm most grateful for.
Q: What else is on your punch list?
A: I'd like to write a book. I just have no idea what that book shall be, but I've just had all these amazing experiences and met these people and been to very strange places. I’ve met remarkable people, seen incredible things, and I think somehow it would be nice to somehow capture the totality of that using the written word.
Edited for space and clarity.
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