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Rob Cameron

@robcjournalist.bsky.social
7.9K followers 4.2K following 562 posts

Journalist/broadcaster for BBC/DW/RTÉ/ORF/CBC/Monocle Radio Author of basedinbohemia.com

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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 25m
You’ve seen the film. But what became of the factory? Schindler’s Jewish workers survived the final months of the war in Brněnec, in what is now the Czech Republic The building's still there; dilapidated, water dripping from the roof. I was given a tour. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/inside-sch...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 21h
On 8 October 1938, German troops occupied Hlučínsko in Czech Silesia. Thousands of local men would later be conscripted into the Wehrmacht. Some ended up defending the beaches of Normandy. The extraordinary true story behind a scene in Saving Private Ryan. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/dont-shoot...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Exactly 88 years ago today, Slovak politicians declared autonomy within Czechoslovakia. The Žilina Agreement came just six days after Munich. Czechoslovakia was losing its borderlands. Now it was beginning to break apart from within. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/myths-of-m...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
EU citizen living in the Czech Republic? Wednesday is the deadline to get on the electoral roll for this month's local elections. You don't need permanent residence. But you do need to register. Here's how 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-invisi...
basedinbohemia.com
The invisible electorate
Tens of thousands of EU citizens can vote here next month. Almost none of them will.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Precisely what my dad said this evening !
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 04/10/2026
Exactly 88 years ago today, Hitler arrived in Karlovy Vary, completing his triumphal two-day tour of the Sudetenland. The visit came four days after the Munich Agreement. But the story of Munich is more complicated than often presented. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/myths-of-m...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 03/10/2026
OTD in 1938, Hitler made a triumphant tour of the Sudetenland, newly annexed under the Munich Agreement. Munich has become a byword for betrayal. But there are many myths & misconceptions about the agreement. Two historians helped me debunk them. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/myths-of-m...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
O nás bez nás. About us, without us. Well actually, it was a little bit more complicated than that. There are several misconceptions about Munich​.​ Read what really happened in September 1938. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/myths-of-m...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
The company that taught the world to wear shoes is about to stop making them in Europe. At its height, Baťa made tyres, planes, bicycles and gas masks - and built entire towns. Read the story of the company that controlled (almost) everything. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-everyt...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Neville Chamberlain’s airline ticket for his flight to Munich, 29 Sep 1938. The agreement was signed in the early hours of the following morning. On Friday, I’ll deconstruct the most enduring myths about Munich - with two leading historians of the period. 👇 basedinbohemia.com
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Today is St Wenceslas Day. The legend​ says anyone who wears the Crown of St Wenceslas without the right to do so will die within a year. Another legend says Reinhard Heydrich​ placed the crown on his head in Nov 1941​. Seven months later he was dead. www.basedinbohemia.com/p/anthropoid
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Fico says he wants peace. He doesn't want Slovakia dragged into a war “because of some Article 5.” FAZ reports Russia's GRU was likely behind the Munich arson attack. One GRU group operated from Slovakia. Peace is one thing. Keeping it is another. 👇 basedinbohemia.com/p/peace-out-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
“Can you imagine being told: ‘Prepare 5,000 soldiers, 10,000 soldiers,’ and off they go to fight somewhere, when we don’t even know whom they’re fighting, or why, or what for?” Uh. Because Slovakia's in NATO and an adversary had attacked a NATO country? basedinbohemia.com/p/peace-out-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Peace, Fico and punching bullies in the face. On fear, deterrence and what NATO’s Article 5 actually means. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/peace-out-...
basedinbohemia.com
Peace out, man
The Slovak prime minister’s comments on NATO were naive - and deliberate
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Almost two months since BBC News decided it no longer needed a Prague correspondent. 22 years of memories: making the Dalai Lama laugh, Mel Gibson angry and Gerhard Schröder REALLY angry. Walking behind Václav Havel’s coffin. A look back, and ahead. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/goodbye-to...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
A special 5,000-koruna note enters circulation today, marking 100 years of Czechoslovakia’s national bank. It has a commemorative foil and a QR code. Just 200,000 printed. Why are Czechs so attached to their crowns? And why is the euro so far off? 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/crownland
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Story in Slovak here: dennikn.sk/minuta/55742...
dennikn.sk
Ivan Novotný a Metod Špaček žalujú ministerstvo vnútra za rozhodnutie nezapísať ich manželstvo do matriky
Ivan Novotný a Metod Špaček podali žalobu proti rozhodnutiu Matúša Šutaja Eštoka nezapísať ich manželstvo uzavreté v zahraničí do osobitnej matriky. Ministerstvo vnútra podľa žalobcov porušilo európsk...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Ivan Novotný & Metod Špaček sued Slovakia’s Interior Ministry today for refusing to register their Austrian marriage. The ECJ says member states must recognise same-sex marriages concluded elsewhere in the EU. In Jan I met them to hear their story. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/who-belong...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Tirana in 2004!
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
A European capital without street names. A​n escape to Istanbul after ​a nightclub brawl in Bulgaria. A 1,000km journey around 🇨🇿 by slow train. 30 years of getting on trains & planes, getting into scrapes, and bringing home crap souvenirs. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/a-life-in-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Georgia nearly killed me. Not the bombs on the railway tracks or a terrifying drive into the Caucasus. The hospitality. Georgian “royalty”, Svaneti, vast quantities of wine - and an awkward visit to a Stalin museum. I’d go back in a heartbeat. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/a-life-in-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
I soon realised we were being followed. We were in Lima, shopping for underwear after Air France lost my luggage. I noticed two suspicious guys shadowing us from shop to shop. I assumed they were pickpockets. They weren't. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/a-life-in-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
OTD in 1939, the Soviets invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after the Nazis invaded from the west, ​under their secret carve-up. Borders look permanent. Until suddenly they aren't. What will th​e map ​of Europe look like 87 years from now?​ 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/maps-matter
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
iRozhlas​ story here: www.irozhlas.cz/zpravy-domov...
irozhlas.cz
Byznys s asistovanou reprodukcí: téměř každý třetí pokus o otěhotnění proběhl na Babišových klinikách
Ministr zdravotnictví chce rozšířit okruh žen, které by mohly podstoupit umělé oplodnění. Velkým hráčem na trhu s reprodukční medicínou je Andrej Babiš. Radiožurnál spočítal, jak si jeho centra vedou.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 16/09/2026
Nearly one in three IVF cycles in CZ takes place at clinics linked to Andrej Babiš's business empire, says Czech Radio. His health minister now wants to expand IVF access to single women. I wrote about Babiš's sprawling business interests here: www.basedinbohemia.com/p/laws-and-s...
basedinbohemia.com
Laws and sausages
Two things you never want to see made
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Oh I didn’t realise he had any competition! Though I guess they weren’t going to elect Honza from Horní Dolní.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
😆 I’m not sure how democratic it was. I don’t think the other guy had much of a chance. In fact I’m fairly sure there was one candidate.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Yep. By 24 electors, eight each from the lords, knights and royal towns. They met in St Wenceslas Chapel in St Vitus Cathedral on 23 October 1526, and elected him King of Bohemia in a unianimous vote. He was crowned King of Bohemia in St Vitus the following February.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
500 years ago, Ferdinand I was elected King of Bohemia, beginning almost four centuries of unbroken Habsburg rule. As Prague Castle marks the anniversary, a look back at Field Marshal Radetzky - and the controversial decision to bring his statue back. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-radetz...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
Today marks the 140th anniversary of the birth of Jan Masaryk, who died two weeks after the Communists seized power in 1948. Earlier in Sep, police exhumed his remains to find an answer to an enduring mystery: Did he fall, jump - or was he pushed? 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-man-wh...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
If you're an EU citizen registered as living in the Czech Republic, you're one of 237,000. All of you over 18 can vote in next month’s local elections. Almost none of you will. All elections matter. If you don’t vote, others will decide for you. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-invisi...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
33 let v týhle zemi - a stejně občas marně lovím v hlavě slova jako pohovor nebo přežitek. 🙄 Dík @filiptitlbach.bsky.social za trpělivost a za moc fajn povídání ve Studiu N - o BBC, o svém životě v České republice a taky o mém novém projektu basedinbohemia.com denikn.cz/2169558/bbc-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Are you an EU citizen living in Prague? Or anywhere in the Czech Republic? Are you bothered by the state of the pavements? The dog mess in the park? The rubbish collection? You do know you can vote right? Right? 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-invisi...
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Reposted by Rob Cameron
Suzanne @sverhaar.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Doing this project with friends is bringing me a lot of wonderful experiences, new insights and skills, great results, and a feeling of belonging. Read about it here And subscribe to Rob's Substack!
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
There are 58,000 EU citizens living officially in Prague. All of them (well, all the adults) are eligible to vote in next month's local elections. How many are on the electoral roll? 1,812. Meet the three foreigners trying to change that. www.basedinbohemia.com/p/the-invisi...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 09/09/2026
Nine months ago I launched basedinbohemia.com with a piece on Andrej Babiš’s barn-sized conflict of interest. Now Brussels says he hasn’t resolved it - and has suspended some Agrofert payments. Some stories refuse to go away. Even for billionaires. 👇 www.basedinbohemia.com/p/laws-and-s...
basedinbohemia.com
Laws and sausages
Two things you never want to see made
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Fabulous! Do subscribe for more such tales … open.substack.com/pub/robjcame...
open.substack.com
Based in Bohemia | Rob Cameron | Substack
Politics, history, memory and place in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Central Europe. Click to read Based in Bohemia, by Rob Cameron, a Substack publication with hundreds of subscribers.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
Empires fall. Statues come down. Sometimes they come back up. Field Marshal Radetzky ​- the Austrian military hero who was actually Czech ​- lost his monument after the collapse of Austria-Hungary. More than a century later, Prague wants him back. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/the-radetz...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
The Romans came this far. Almost 1,850 years ago, Roman soldiers left a message carved into the rock beneath Trenčín Castle. It’s still there — and it tells a rather extraordinary story. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/the-roman-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
Some evocative 1963 photos of old Bratislava courtesy of Facebook group www.facebook.com/groups/presp... A lost world I wrote about here: robjcameron.substack.com/p/to-the-cas...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 05/09/2026
Their value is essentially zero. But I’ve carried these things home from Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Peru etc - and somehow never managed to throw them away. Three decades of travelling, told through the strange, useless objects I’ve accumulated along the way. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/a-life-in-...
robjcameron.substack.com
A life in ten trinkets (part one)
My cabinet of curiosities and worthless souvenirs
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Lol
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
A ceramic lion given to me by a Taiwanese ladyboy in Bratislava. A pair of rhino teeth. A passport from a country that doesn’t exist. Every object in my ridiculous collection has a story attached to it - and a reason I’ve never thrown it away. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/a-life-in-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
This is my ​'crap collection​'. Trinkets, mementos and souvenirs from decades of wandering - from a Kyrgyz felt hat to a ceramic lion given to me by a Taiwanese ladyboy in Bratislava. Worth zero in monetary terms. But worth something to me. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/a-life-in-...
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Laid out here! robjcameron.substack.com/p/goodbye-to...
robjcameron.substack.com
Goodbye to all that
A 22-year relationship with BBC News ends today. Emotions are mixed.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
After 22 years reporting on the Czech Republic and Slovakia for the BBC, I spoke to The Slovak Spectator about some of the stories that stayed with me - and what comes next. Thanks to Oscar for the thoughtful questions. 👇 spectator.sme.sk/politics-and...
spectator.sme.sk
For 22 years, he explained Slovakia to BBC audiences. Now his job has disappeared
Rob Cameron on the Slovak stories that stayed with him – and a country he sees as increasingly divided.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Investigators have begun exhuming the remains of former Czechoslovak foreign minister Jan Masaryk from his family tomb at Lány, in a fresh attempt to establish how he died in March 1948. Murder, suicide or accident? 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/the-man-wh...
robjcameron.substack.com
The man who fell to earth
Police examine fresh evidence in the death of Jan Masaryk
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Story here: www.seznamzpravy.cz/clanek/domac...
seznamzpravy.cz
Macinka na zahraniční vysílání Českého rozhlasu nedá ani korunu - Seznam Zprávy
Česká diplomacie přestane od příštího roku financovat zahraniční vysílání Českého rozhlasu (ČRo). Stanice Radio Prague International je tak po 90 letech své existence v ohrožení.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Seznam Zprávy reports today that the Czech government's 2027 draft budget contains zero funding for Radio Prague International — potentially leaving it unable to broadcast from January 1st. The news comes a day after the station turned 90. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/losing-you...
robjcameron.substack.com
Losing your voice
Radio Prague marks its 90th birthday. Its future has never looked more precarious.
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Rob Cameron @robcjournalist.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
90 years ago today, Radio Prague went on air for the first time. It’s also my alma mater — the place where I began my broadcasting career in 1999. But as Radio Prague turns 90, its future has never looked more uncertain. 👇 robjcameron.substack.com/p/losing-you...
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