Reporter Tomáš Etlzer becomes first Czech to win Emmy

Television reporter Tomáš Etzler has become the first Czech ever to win America’s most prestigious TV award, the Emmy. Etzler was part of a team which won the 2008 Technology and Engineering Emmy for developing equipment which allows journalists to report from remote places cut off from modern technology. The reporter, who now works for Czech Television, helped develop the system during an eight-year stint at CNN.

“It’s a new system which is referred to as digital news gathering. It’s a system which replaces what we know as the satellite truck – huge machines with equipment worth between one and two million dollars each – with satellite modems. They are the size of a laptop, and cost around five or six thousands dollars. It’s basically an external satellite modem which is capable of broadcasting live pictures over broadband via satellite. This makes the operations much cheaper and much more movable. It’s a very small device which can fit into everybody’s small backpack. You can work without power because everything is battery-powered; you can do it from anywhere in the world, for very little money and you are extremely mobile. I do believe this is a revolution in broadcasting technologies.”

You are probably the first Czech who joined CNN. How difficult was it to get on CNN staf and become a correspondent?

“Well, I wasn’t really a CNN correspondent; I was a producer although I had some experience on CNN air. It was of course quite difficult. I was living in the United States for several years before this opportunity came along and when I got an offer to work with CNN in Atlanta in 1999, I knew this was once-in-a-lifetime offer and I didn’t take any chance. I really tried to work extremely hard to convince them that they made the right choice to hire me. Of course, CNN is a fantastic company, a very good company which helps their employees. Within CNN there is of course, competition but it was absolutely beautiful eight years I spent there and it was some of the best years in my life.”

You now for Czech TV in Asia, and in China, you are currently in Pakistan. Is there much difference between the work you were doing for CNN and the work you are now doing for Czech TV?

“The major difference is that now I am a correspondent; I spend much more time in front of the camera then I did when I was at CNN. But other than that, it’s almost the same work. For Czech TV, I’m trying to follow the same principles I learned at CNN which is honesty and truth. It’s pretty much the same. You know, I work alone or just with my interpreter so it’s a much smaller team than I was used to at CNN. But the core of the work, the honest journalism, the research, the filming – that’s absolutely the same, just with a smaller company.”