"I did my gap year in a war zone"

Pierre Sautreuil, a student at the Sciences Po School of Journalism, is doing his Master's through the dual education programme with an apprenticeship at Agence France Presse. He spent his gap year on the front lines in Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists. This experience of war reporting at 21 years old earned him the Prix Bayeux Calvados in the Young Reporter category in October 2015. Interview.

Like so many students when they start Sciences Po, did you always want to become a journalist?

Pierre Sautreuil: Actually I never had a "vocation" for journalism. For me, it's a job, not a vocation. I'm wary of the mystique surrounding the profession. I grew up in an environment where not much attention was paid to the media. I started keeping up with the news very late; when I got here, I certainly wasn't the type to be talking about Albert Londres [famous early twentieth-century journalist] like a guru. I got a taste for journalism when I joined La Péniche, the student newspaper, in first year. Lectures and discussions did the rest.

How did you get interested in Russia?

P. S.: I started learning Russian at Sciences Po in second year. I chose where to do my year abroad by a process of elimination: I wanted to go further than the neighbouring European countries, but to a place where my foreignness wasn't written all over my face. And looking at Russia on the map, I thought well, there is a huge territory that we have huge prejudices about. I wanted to discover the reality for myself, so I went to MGIMO (Moscow State University of International Relations) in Moscow for my third year abroad. I wasn't disappointed, it's a fabulous country.

How was the year in Moscow?

P. S.: The language teaching at MGIMO was fascinating and so were the courses on Russian philosophy and international relations. I also did some reporting, which I think is the best way to discover a country and get out of the expatriate community. I used this experience and my plan to continue reporting on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to support my application for the Master's at the School of Journalism.

Once you got into the School of Journalism, you wanted to add to your education with a gap year before the second year of your Master's.

P. S.: Yes, I hoped to take this specialisation further and practice my Russian. I wanted to do several internships with newspapers to increase my chances after graduation. I started my gap year in May 2014 in Moscow, with an internship at Le Courrier de Russie, which ended prematurely because of a big disagreement about the editorial line. That meant I found myself without a visa in June, with three days to leave the country. I was advised to go to Ukraine, and that's what I did.

Your gap year then took a very different course from what you had anticipated ... You become a correspondent in the war zone in eastern Ukraine.

P. S.: Yes, I had noticed that the weekly papers had no correspondents there. I covered the conflict between pro-Russian separatists and the Ukrainian army for l'Obs. In total, I spent seven or eight months of this gap year in Ukraine, and three or four months in a war zone. It was my baptism by fire, in every sense of the term. I found myself at 21 in the middle of a war that is also an information war. It was the most formative experience I could have had.

What did you learn about journalism?

P. S.: In that type of context, it's rumour after rumour. You have to know how to listen to yourself and to others. Talking with the other journalists on site is vital. You have to verify everything you are told and never publish anything without three corroborating sources. And of course you have to learn to assess the risks and make decisions quickly without losing your cool. I discovered my real role models in journalism in the field – the reporters I met on site helped me a lot. They became friends. Without that solidarity, I would not have managed to keep going.

After such an adventure, was it difficult to return to lectures in September?

P. S.: It wasn't easy. On the first day back at university, a photographer I know was injured over there. It made me wonder what I was doing here. And also because I wanted to continue to learn through practice. That is why I chose to do my second Master's year through an apprenticeship. After graduation, I don't have a career plan, but what I do know for sure is that I want to keep covering international affairs in the written press. My experience in Ukraine has made me more optimistic for the future: freelance work does not necessarily mean a lack of security, as we so often hear.

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