Associate Prof. Alice Němcová Tejkalová on her stay at City, University of London in the country of her particular origin

Our family tree reveals that one of my ancestors with my maternal surname, Waters came to Bohemia in the 17^th century from England, very probably as a soldier during the Thirty Years' War, and stayed forever as well as the kin he started. Therefore, I always feel thrilled and sentimental whenever I travel to the UK.

Excitement is connected to the high expectations I have when it comes to my performance. I always want to deliver as much as possible, at the highest possible standard, and it floods a lot of adrenaline into my blood. The sentiment is involved because my grandfather always wanted to travel to his family's country of origin. Still, due to the Communist regime in Czechoslovakia, he never could, so I am always looking around also for him.

This time, I was a visiting professor at the City, University of London, to which I am related mainly thanks to friendly ties with Zahera Harb and Lea Hellemueller, and I enjoyed my stay enormously. I was honoured to deliver a lecture Fighting for the Impact and Influence in the Czech Republic: Foreign Correspondence and International Relations in James Rodgers’s class on foreign correspondence not only because of the great questions the students asked me afterwards but also because of my admiration for James's achievements as a long-time foreign correspondent for BBC, with completed postings in Moscow, Brussels and Gaza. If you haven't read his most recent book, Assignment Moscow: Reporting on Russia From Lenin to Putin, I definitely recommend it to your attention. It will help you to understand what is happening in contemporary Russia.

Thanks to Zahera’s great hospitality, I could see City's students' facilities, including the brand new podcasting studios ready for their new MA programme Podcasting, at which launching event I listened with immense interest to the various UK podcasters. It was essential for me to discuss our curriculums for Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media and Globalisation programme and the other journalistic programmes and share our experience with Zahera and Lea (and drink cups of great coffee in the nearby cafés). We all agreed on the capital importance of practical and theoretical background for our students, with the special attention given to learning by doing and travelling abroad to get another perspective on one’s life.

Unfortunately, disinformation and polarized societies have been troublesome in Central Europe for almost ten years. The Czech Republic now has a short period of nice time, even though bothered by the economic recession. After more than ten years, it has been without any populist party or movement in the government, and it has a president who is openly pro-democratic and antiauthoritarian. We know it is more than enough when we observe what is happening in Hungary, Poland or Slovakia. Thus, I was happy that I could share a story of our battle with disinformation and the attempts to turn the situation in the country to a different than democratic course with Journalism Department's staff in my research talk on the impact of disinformation on Central European media and legislation (after my speech, I was asked by Department's Vice Head Glenda Cooper to develop it into a paper for European Journalism Observatory that I did: The battle against disinformation and Russian propaganda in Central and Eastern Europe).

I believe I met my obligations to my ancestors and represented them well at the City, University of London. I look forward to future cooperation within the Erasmus Mundus Journalism, Media and Globalisation programme!