My colleague and I try to break down the myth that radio is something antiquated, says documentary maker Jan Herget
Jan Herget is a documentary maker, editor, and also member of the Association for Radio Production, and alongside his colleague he is in his fifth year now of educating radio apprentices. As part of this year's festival he will once again act as organiser of a seminar in radio news reporting, and possibly also as a competitor.
Last year you received the Student Jury Award in the category of News Report for Miracles of Medicine – ARO. Will you be competing this year as well?
I don't yet know whether I'll be competing again this year. I submitted one of my reports from last year for the internal round as part of Czech Radio and I'm currently waiting to see if I have the luck to progress to the finals in Olomouc.
You are a member of the Association for Radio Production, which is preparing a seminar of radio news reporting as part of the festival. Can you briefly tell us a bit more about the seminar already?
The seminar is primarily intended for journalism students at Palacký University. My colleague Jana Gulda and I draw on established practices, having been educating radio apprentices interested in working at Czech Radio for the fifth year now. You could say that we are a well-oiled duo and thus our presentation of public news reporting should have panache, should entertain the students and above all should provide important information about our work. The thing is that there is a fairly widespread idea among young people that radio is something antiquated. It's our aspiration to change that.
You hold two contradictory roles at the festival. On the one hand you are an author and competitor, on the other a seminar organiser. Does your view of the festival change with regard for these roles?
I have experience with this "double role" from last year and the common denominator is stress. As an author and competitor, one is tense over whether they can defend their work well, and in the role of organiser one is also tense over whether the programme they're in charge of will go off as planned. But it's a healthy and pleasant tenseness, and when it's crowned by success in both cases, it's also a double dose of joy. That's why I'm already looking forward again to what joys Olomouc will bring me this year.
