Director
Miroslav Bobek (1967)
Foto: Khalil Baalbaki Foto: Jana Jirátová Foto: Khalil Baalbaki
Miroslav Bobek studied zoology at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Charles University in Prague and between the years of 1993 and 2009 he worked in Czech Radio. Here he started with popularisation of science for which he obtained the award of Czech Academy of Sciences. In 1997 he managed the Rainbow Bridge project (broadcasting at the time of the flood) and then he worked as an editor in chief of Czech Radio 2 - Prague. In 2000 he founded the division Czech Radio Online and became its editor in chief. In 2005 he prepared the concept for founding the station Leonardo for popularisation of science. Till the end of 2009 he was the director of Czech Radio Online and at the same time he was appointed to manage the station Czech Radio Leonardo.
In 1994 he initiated and organised the project called African Odyssey when the migration of black storks from CR to African wintering quarters was being monitored by satellite telemetry and for the whole time he was the head of the project. He was the leader of all the expeditions that took place within the framework of the project (e.g. to Senegal, Mauritania, Chad, Ethiopia) and he broadcasted hundreds of reports from them on the stations of Czech Radio. He also played a managing role in the project New Odyssey that started in 2002 and within the framework of this project he took part in most of the expeditions to Asia (e.g. to Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Mongolia). He was also the author or co-author of numerous popular as well as scientific texts that have been published about them. A documentary called Princess of Gibraltar (1999) about African Odyssey was produced by ARD.
Miroslav Bobek is also the author and leader of the project The Revealed that started as “a slightly different reality show” with gorillas in Prague Zoo in the autumn in 2005. The Revealed got much attention of the public in CR as well as abroad and Czech Radio obtained for this project the “wild Oscar” at the prestigious festival Wildscreen in Bristol and the Seal Comenius EduMedia in Berlin. In 2007 Miroslav Bobek was awarded by the Honorary Medal of Vojta Náprstek for the Revealed project. Based on this project there were published DVDs 70 days with gorillas (2006) and New stories (2007), a book of popular education The Revealed (2007), books of fairy tales Moja and a peacock (2006), Moja, Tatu and biting midges (2008) and Gorilla Fairy Tales (2009), nursery rhymes Why not to stroke a hedgehog (2007), CDs Moja and a peacock (2008) and Moja, Tatu and biting midges (2009, both interpreted by Lucie Bílá) and then calendars, jigsaw puzzles etc. The proceeds of all this production, of which Miroslav Bobek is either the author or co-author, are designed for conservation of gorillas in the wild. And so for example the books for children where the gorillas from Prague Zoo play the main role could be distributed in Cameroon.
Miroslav Bobek realised other projects as well, e.g. Via Pontica (monitoring of the migration of birds of prey in East Turkey), Voice of this day (radio programmes, web; MCs and CDs published from 1995 up to now) or the internet broadcasting of nesting of black storks or Peregrine falcons etc. He also took many records of ethnic music and a selection them was published on a CD Singing of Africa (2005).
