Guns, danger, food poisoning, arrests ….but Eric Campbell still chases international current affairs.

“I think there is a perception that if you work on Foreign Correspondent you’re always sitting on the Champs-Élysées,” says ABC reporter Eric Campbell.

“Generally, you’re in the middle of nowhere, trying to find a hotel that’s fit for human habitation. I’ve tended to work in the really hard parts of the world, just because I find the stories more interesting.

“I remember once I was in Niger suffering from food poisoning and very selfishly insisted I get the one room in the hotel that had a toilet. But the toilet was a hole in the ground and it was shared by other guests in the hotel -in my room! It’s less than glamorous. I’ve never done a story I would call a ‘junket.'”

Campbell is the longest-serving reporter on Foreign Correspondent, which this week celebrates 30 years.

Initially rejected for a job interview in 1992, he would join the international affairs series in 1996 when he was posted in Moscow. Constantly filing for ABC News and ABC Radio, his passion turned out to be long-form television current affairs. Remarkably, Campbell hasn’t even filed a story on Australia since 1995 -a rarity at ABC.

“I’ve had guns put to my head. I was actually once told someone was going to shoot me.”

But in chasing some of the world’s most unique and sometimes dangerous stories, he’s had his share of  incidents.

“There’s been many times when I’ve been threatened. I’ve had guns put to my head. I was actually once told someone was going to shoot me. I’ve been fired on. I’ve been arrested more times than I can remember. The greatest danger is the cars. In many countries taxi drivers do not have seatbelts, because it’s an offense to their manhood,” he tells TV Tonight.

“The worst wasn’t for Foreign Correspondent, it was for ABC News when I was in Iraq, and there was a suicide bombing. That was the low point of my life and career. Since then I haven’t been to active war zones.”

“I just find the idea of the world being your canvas, a very exciting prospect.”

If these are the hazards of life as a correspondent, then what drives him to stay so long in the role?

“I suppose I must be a bit odd to want to spend my life just doing international stories. But I just find the idea of the world being your canvas, a very exciting prospect. Some people love covering federal politics, sport or industrial relations. I’ve always been a nut for international stories,” he explains.

“It all sounds very corny, but in some ways, it’s just the adventure …. jumping on a plane and flying off to another land and trying to very quickly immerse yourself in a different culture, different language. To me, it’s the ultimate journalistic challenge. As much as I respect people who spend months doing investigative reports on corruption in New South Wales, I get a bigger kick out of hanging out in Kyrgyzstan, in a nomad’s tent. Hopefully, conveying some of the joy of that to the audience.

“The ABC is one of the very few places in the world that have this kind of program still.”

Campbell, who is now based in Sydney, also travels leanly on a public broadcaster budget, often only with a cameraman and local ‘fixer’ (to assist with local knowledge) and sometimes not even that.

“The last story I did in Georgia, I didn’t even take the ABC cameraman, I used a Russian cameraman, and increasingly, I’ve just been using local, camera men and women. Because, resources are very diminished at the ABC. So sometimes, you do have to just bite the bullet and grab what you can take.

“We do it very cheaply. We’re not a big lumbering beast. When I’d come across the BBC or an American broadcaster, it’s always quite funny to see how many resources they have for the same stories we do.”

“We could actually cover countries that we couldn’t get visas to”

Another hazard of the job is in the politics that surrounds reporters in foreign territories. Campbell was recently amongst 121 Australians banned from entering Russia. Stories on Thailand and China are unlikely to see him welcome anytime soon.

“I’d be very surprised if the embassies gave me a visa again. Visas are always a problem for traveling. But one of the advantages about the COVID lock down was we started doing stories by remote control, and found we could actually cover countries that we couldn’t get visas to.

“I did a story about the revolution in Belarus, a country that would never give me a visa. But I was able to use local people to send the footage back and put together a story I couldn’t have done if it hadn’t been for COVID.”

The one hour special A Wild Ride: 30 years on the Road with Foreign Correspondent will hear from correspondents, past and present including Lisa Millar, Tony Jones, Jennifer Byrne, Mark Corcoran, Sally Neighbour, David Lipson and Deborah Snow, as well as founding executive producer Jonathan Holmes.

As is the nature of television, the show has also faced changes in its output, now screening in half hour blocks on Thursday nights in various seasons across the year.

“The ABC gives the program more support and security than it’s ever had.”

Campbell is optimistic the worst of ABC cuts to the show is behind them.

“There were more resources when I started, I mean, things have gotten tighter all the time.

“When I started as a correspondent, there was no internet. There wasn’t a 24 hour news channel, there wasn’t an online news page at the ABC.”

He adds, “I thought every year was going to be our last. The funny thing is now I think the ABC gives the program more support and security than it’s ever had. I don’t have the feeling anymore that the program is in jeopardy.

“That can change of course, but I think we’re in a fairly good place after 30 years, which is pretty extraordinary because when it was first started, Jonathan Holmes, the executive producer, didn’t even know if it would last a year.”

A Wild Ride: 30 years on the Road with Foreign Correspondent 8pm Thursday on ABC.