If the Czech Radio building in Prague Vinohrady were ever to be bombed again, like it was in 1945 by the Germans and in 1968 by the Russians, the employees are to meet in front of the church at the nearby NámÄ›stĂ MĂru, presumably to launch guerrilla broadcasting against whoever happens to be the country’s current occupier.
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Czech President Klaus recovering from hip joint surgery ... for the English service of the Czech public broadcaster, ÄŚeskĂ˝ rozhlas, just a year ago, as part of the official emergency drill. But besides getting ready for the next war, there have been many other interesting things I have done in my first year here at Radio Prague. Let me share with you some of the highlights of my career on the global airwaves.
One of the first feature stories I did was about the Czech painter Jan Zrzavý. In the south Moravian town of Mikulov, where I lived for five years before embarking on my Radio Prague career, I made friends with a relative of his who moved there from the capital in the early 1990s after having lived for more than a decade in Jan Zrzavý’s apartment in Prague’s Malá Strana. I spent hours listening to her stories about the old man, and was enthralled about the prospect of doing such a fascinating story.
My first reporting trip abroad happened last September when I was one of two reporters accompanying none other than the President of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus to a meeting of central European countries at Hungary’s Lake Balaton. I only managed to interview him in Czech, though, because when I proposed we speak in English, he just muttered something like, “Oh, that English service of yours…”. Apart from this incident, I will always remember the way President Klaus bossed around his staff aboard the miniature 1960s Soviet-made Yak 40 aircraft we flew. On the other hand, the president’s wife, LĂvia Klausová is one of the nicest people I have ever met.
One of the coolest undertakings I have ever done, and not just for my job, was an excursion with Michael Kocáb to a former Soviet base in central Bohemia in search of Cold-War-era silos for nuclear missiles. Mr Kocáb was the head of the post-1989 Czechoslovak parliamentary commission in charge of the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Before this illustrious assignment, he was also the leader of a famous rock band, Pražský výběr. The band might not be very well-known abroad, but for anyone who grew up in 1980s Czechoslovakia, Michael Kocáb is and always will be a rock star. Driving with him to the base was an extraordinary experience. People recognized him wherever we went and he was very good at handling members of the public – actually, deep-down enjoying the experience. However, he was surprised that his face alone would not get him past the police checkpoint into a refugee camp that is now on the site of the former base.
Working at Radio Prague can be surprising in many ways. On yet another reporting trip, I set out for the small town of Varnsdorf in northern Bohemia, to explore the numerous local Vietnamese communities that opened the first Buddhist temple in the country. To get an insight on how locals viewed the issue, I went to a secondary school in the town and talked to students about it. I would have never thought how openly racist they were on record, slurring the Vietnamese as well as Roma, accusing them of all forms of wickedness imaginable.
On a more recent note, I have been working on some exciting stories you will have a chance to hear in the coming weeks. One of them is about the oldest Czech pasta plant, which has operated on the same site on the River Vltava in South Bohemia since the 1880s. Also coming up is an interview with Peter Freestone, a former PA to Freddie Mercury, who settled in the Czech Republic several years ago.
All in all, working at Radio Prague means great variety, and a chance to learn things about the Czech Republic and its people which I thought I knew, but really I didn’t. So stay to tuned Radio Prague for more stories about the country in the heart of Europe.
(radio-Prague)
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