Alumni Stories

When life plans change : from history student to international news

• University of Luxembourg • Season 1 • Episode 2

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What happens when life's unexpected turns lead to discovering your true calling? Gaël Arellano never planned to become a journalist. Growing up between Luxembourg and Chile with a grandfather who ran a radio station, journalism was in his blood—but not in his plans. 

After leaving his political science studies in Brussels to care for his mother, Arellano's path took a decisive turn at the University of Luxembourg. While writing press releases for his professional rally driver brother, he caught the attention of newspaper Le Quotidien, launching what would become a 12-year career in journalism. Now at RTL Luxembourg, Arellano offers a rare glimpse into the realities of modern news reporting—from the peaceful-looking newsroom that's actually "on fire" to the unpredictable workdays that can stretch from planned leisure to midnight deadlines in an instant.

Whether you're contemplating your educational path, curious about media careers, or simply interested in how global news reaches your screen, this conversation offers valuable insights from someone who lives at the intersection of words and action every day. Subscribe to Alumni Stories for more inspiring journeys from University of Luxembourg graduates who've found their unique paths in the professional world.

Read Gael's article on Gaza on RTL Today

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Masti:

Hello and welcome to Alumni Stories, a podcast brought to you by the University of Luxembourg. I'm your host, Masti. Let me give you an idea of what Alumni Stories is all about. Whether you've studied here before, or you're curious and consider pursuing your studies at the University of Luxembourg, or just want to listen to interesting people, whatever it might be, you're at the right place. I know it sounds forward, but let me break it down for you. Every episode will star a former student who finished their degrees and has set a foot into the working world, or, as I like to call it, the grown-up life. We'll get a glimpse of each individual their personal ups and downs, their survival strategies, the recipe to balance uni and life, and much more. So if you're like me, someone who's been looking for the right study program but hasn't been able to find the right fit yet, call this your lucky day, because this podcast is made for you. So, without any further ado, let's dive into today's episode.

Masti:

Today's guest on Alumni Stories has a lot to tell. He is a professional journalist and a fellow podcaster working at RTL here in Luxembourg. Growing up half Luxembourgish and half Chilean, he was given the opportunity to meet two different cultures, shaping his childhood and perspective. In his field, juggling more than two things at a time is very likely to happen, which is why efficiency and capacity are truly important for progress. Although words, both written and spoken, play a big role in his profession, he believes that actions speak louder than that. Let's find out why he thinks that way, how the life of a journalist looks like and his advice on getting into the scene. Please welcome Gael Arellano. Thinks that way, how the life of a journalist looks like and his advice on getting into the scene. Please welcome Kael Arellano.

Masti:

Hi, thank you for being here. I'm so excited to have you here. Yeah, because you're the first journalist I've talked to in my life, I think. To get to know you a little better maybe you can tell us about yourself and your own words.

Gaël:

Well, I think that phrase I used actions speak louder than words. It pretty much defines me. I'm a person of action. I'm not a person of which is ironic being a journalist writing and doing so much stuff with words but I like to be implicated in everything I do and everything I prepare, everything I report about, I want to know about it, I want to be there. I don't want to do it with a phone or whatever. So I'm very much a person of action.

Masti:

And can you tell us, maybe, how you ended up being a journalist, because I think that's quite interesting.

Gaël:

Yeah, actually it was quite. It was actually by accident, even though in my family I have a couple of journalists, especially my granddad, which was a kind of a very well-known journalist in Chile, opened up his own radio, radio Latina, and exists here in Luxembourg as well. It's not the same group, though, and I never really thought I'm going to be a journalist. I just started studying. The opportunity came up at some point to write for a paper that's actually here in Belval, le Quotidien. I used to write some communiqués de presse for my brother, which was a rally driver.

Masti:

Can we talk about your family constellation here? Your grandfather created.

Gaël:

A radio,

Masti:

And it's also still existing here, but it's a different group. You said yeah, and your brother is a rally driver.

Gaël:

He used to be a professional rally driver. Yes, that's my older brother.

Gaël:

We're five, so pretty big family,

Masti:

and what are the other ones doing?

Gaël:

The others are have a little bit more of a classical okay, um kind of jobs, um yeah and uh. We were at my brother my brother's a professional rally driver and pretty impressively, managed to become a partner in a lawyer firm at the same time.

Masti:

Wow, I don't even know what to say because I've never heard that before in my life. But you grew up you saw your grandpa having that radio station, so you had some inspiration before.

Gaël:

Not really, because my granddad, being a political refugee, came to Luxembourg as soon as the dictatorship ended in Chile, went back to Chile, opened the radio up again because it was bombed at the time of the dictatorship. So he opened it up under a different name. Same location, though, and I didn't really get to see much. Because we went to Chile once a year, I did participate. I remember now some kids' programs that we had on Sundays or Saturdays, but that was for fun, yeah, and I liked it. But I never really thought, okay, I'm going to do that. And, like I said, I started writing for my brother and Le Quotidien came on knocking saying, hey, you're pretty good at writing, would you like to write for us? And that's how the whole thing started.

Masti:

But did you like writing in general before?

Gaël:

Yes, yes, actually, that came up already in my studies. When I was at the European school, I had to be very, very honest, I had probably one of the best French teachers around, madame Lornay, which is, I think, now in Brussels and she kind of ignited that passion writing and putting things into words and she really, really kept that flame going.

Masti:

So she inspired you to maybe even see a profession inside of like writing and anything that is has something to do with that a little bit, yeah, a little bit.

Gaël:

At the time, I had so many ideas about what I was going to do. There was so many things that you can do, I mean everybody goes through that, around 17, 18 years of age and universities coming up and you're like, okay, what I'm gonna am I gonna do? The only thing I knew is I wanted to study political science, and that's how the whole thing kind of started.

Masti:

But you went for history in the BCE.

Gaël:

Yeah, actually that's more of a life emergency kind of situation that happened. I came back to Luxembourg because my mother was quite sick and I went to the bachelor's degrees. That was the closest to what I was already learning.

Masti:

At that time you were already signed up for the bachelor's in Brussels, I think.

Gaël:

I was in Brussels studying political science exactly

Masti:

and how different was it from the Brussels studies?

Gaël:

Well, I have to say, in Brussels or any big university, you can go, and ULB is pretty big is you can go or not, it doesn't make a difference for them. And you can listen in class or not, it doesn't make a difference. Here, the university being smaller Belval was not done yet we were in the campus of Walferdange at the time. You had a very direct contact with your classmates, with your teachers and as well with the people that oversaw the program. So that kind of keeps you interested. And that was my experience here is that since you could talk to everybody and they were very open to students coming up to them, that made it much more interesting to come every day to every lesson, every class, because a lot of people, when they go to university, they go to party a little bit, yeah, and then maybe they don't show up for two or three days

Masti:

are you speaking of experience here?

Gaël:

I won't answer that yes a little bit, a little bit but, um, actually coming here to a smaller university, kind of starting up and growing, what were you expecting?

Gaël:

to be honest, at the time, it was more about the situation at all uh, what I wanted is was to to get my, my my degree, and uh the circumstances ended up being great. It's kind of a luck, yeah, kind of deal. Uh, I had great teachers, great classmates, uh interesting lessons. To be honest, it's not always the case.

Gaël:

Everybody knows that you can start something if it's at university or before that in school and go because you have to. This was not the case here. I mean, if I take the best example I've ever had, there's always the four-hour lesson about statistics in the morning. That was in ULB political science. Nobody, nobody, made it through. Even the people that were really interested in statistics, they would never stay the four hours.

Masti:

I mean, I think my brain would never be able to comprehend four hours of statistics. Honestly.

Gaël:

The latest research shows that we have maybe a span of attention of 25 to 40 minutes, so the idea of giving class for three, four hours doesn't really make sense.

Masti:

And how long did you stay here? Because I guess you were changing your studies

Gaël:

So I stayed pretty much two years. I validated what I could validate, because not everything was the same. University of Luxembourg was quite open as well to try to find a way that I wouldn't lose all the credits I had in Brussels. And uh, yeah, basically I validated almost a year and I had to do two more to get my bachelor's here.

Masti:

Did you do your master's too?

Gaël:

I started my master's here in the European governance Very interesting master's and it was going great. I was a year, almost a year, into it and then I got the offer from RTL and then it was do I finish my master's or do I take this job at the biggest media company in Luxembourg? Yeah. As a journalist, which at that point I knew I wanted to do.

Masti:

So maybe it was even like fate that you ended up coming back to Luxembourg, because having the job opportunity here it worked well, with you already being here too.

Gaël:

Yeah, I mean, I don't know, I'm not much of a fate guy, but if you asked anybody in my family or my wife. She's very much a fate person Maybe. Maybe it was. I just know that some things in life you just don't see coming yeah, pretty much.

Masti:

Did the bce in history kind of prepared you for the journalism and the job you now have?

Gaël:

I have a very unpopular opinion on this, except if you're going to be a surgeon or any kind of activity like that. I really think university is a good step for it to prepare. Especially there's one side, I would say, of the studies that helped a lot, which is research and sources. You know to learn how to know that this is a source that's reliable, the other one is not. That is something that was pretty big here as well in ULB. That is probably the one side that I really needed to do my job today. But for the rest, the classes, even journalism classes, are not going to prepare you for what happens every day at work. It's any job that is not again surgeon or whatever. You will learn on the job, but these classes help you get to a point maybe where you can handle the stress yeah, where you can handle the pressure where you can handle also having lots of work, because university is lots of work.

Gaël:

But I don't really believe in the idea of this Master's is gonna make you the best no,

Masti:

I think you're 100 right on that. But I'm just wondering because, uh, I know that they have a few journalism courses and media courses I'm just wondering if they help you kind of get an idea of what the actual journalism world looks like.

Gaël:

This is in my case. It went pretty well. I did this media class and I participated in this project they had for the TV. At the time, when I came to work there it was still there. The redacteur en chef was Alain Rousseau. But I think it really depends on who comes and shows you and who comes and explains that to you, because if you get, you can get the best journalist out there, but maybe he's not good at teaching, or maybe he's not. He doesn't have time to show you around or maybe it's not a priority for him. It depends. I mean, I can tell you, uh, five, six people that come from artel, they could give you a great class, and maybe 10 others that could not so it's a personality thing of course, I think, I think so yeah, um, so you did the master's in european governance here, or started it at least.

Masti:

How did that affect you in your job? Maybe?

Gaël:

um, at the time, the, the goal for me was, more than anything, to get that master's degree. It was something I was interested in because that was also one of the outcomes. I was maybe thinking about going into the European institutions. My dad was actually in the European Parliament for most of his life. So, yeah, that's why I chose European governance and on top of it, I also knew this was a topic I knew very well. So, to be honest, there was also the easy way to get a master's. I guess that was the initial idea.

Gaël:

Of course, as soon as you get into classes and you have debates and you have discussion, dissertations or anything, you of course see that's not just about that, how it helped me, I would say, more than anything is to exchange with educated people and people that are interested about what's going on in Europe generally, and I think this is something that's been kind of lost in translation the last 15 years, which I don't really understand.

Gaël:

I'm old enough to have lived through Europe having borders and having to change your currency every time you went from I don't know. You went from Wasserbillig to Trier and you had to go to the Deutsche Mark and you had to prepare that and you had huge waiting lines at the border because they had to stop everybody, etc. This is, of course, just a practical side of it. Just that, I think, would make people change their minds very fast If you just did this. You see now with the border checks in Germany that people are so annoying that they have to be in traffic all day, etc. But imagine that all day. That's the practical side of it. And let's not forget today, with all the international forces going the way they're going, if we were not a European Union, do you think we would be important at all in the negotiation table as just Luxembourg or just France or just Italy?

Gaël:

I don't think so, and that's today, more than any other time, very important.

Masti:

And how different was it to really get into the job from what you've experienced before? Like you just wrote things for your brother. In that case, people really liked what you did and you had your studies, of course started your master's, but how was it to actually step into the field?

Gaël:

super exciting, yeah, oh yeah. At the time I was when I got the call from Le Quotidien. I was like they asked me if I was interested in any sports, which I am and always have been and they gave me an opportunity to work on some pieces about soccer, about rugby, about boxing. They just asked me what I, which were the sports where I really knew my way around, and they gave me some pieces here and there at first, and then, when they saw that I was working out, I was working pretty much Wednesday to Sunday, every day with them, and I have to say that the first day in the redaction where all the journalists worked.

Gaël:

That was really, really exciting for me.

Masti:

And you said Wednesday to Sunday. What about the Monday and Tuesday?

Gaël:

Well, when you work in the sports world, nothing happens on Monday or Tuesday, except Champions League now. But if you have national leagues, they play generally Friday, saturday, sunday. So let's say, volleyball, basketball, soccer, whatever sports it is, generally they play weekends, logically because people work, because they have more time on their hands, and then sometimes it will work Tuesdays as well because of European championships. But that's something that has evolved a lot. I mean, I've been in the business now 12 years.

Gaël:

12 years ago the Nations League didn't exist for example,

Masti:

and how was the workload starting off as a freshman in the field?

Gaël:

First it was quite light. They told me OK, you'll go there on Thursday, you go there on Friday. We don't have much else this week. But it also has something to do with the fact that I started in the summer summer there's also kind of a break.

Gaël:

Yeah, a lot of sports, and at first I think the first two months were a bit slow, I would say, and then, as soon as September came around, it started. I started to understand the pressure of getting something ready, because it's also a paper, so it had to be printed it had to be printed and you had to have everything ready by 11 at 11. If your story was not ready, you were delaying everybody. So I can tell you then, especially when you start you're okay, I need to do this.

Masti:

is it now digital?

Gaël:

they are still. They still have their paper. I think they're doing more and more in transition into digital. Uh, from what I've heard, because, uh, I, the people that used to work there when I was there not all of them are still there, um, but I know that digital is the way to go today, with the smartphones and everything, and it's pretty well known that papers are losing audience.

Gaël:

Yeah, especially when it goes from 30 to under, like under 30 uh, maybe the people are 50 60 will always read their paper, but I don't think it will be the case for anybody that was born with a smartphone.

Masti:

Yeah, true, in their hands, and you said there, in a way, that you're not part of it anymore. So what are you doing now, exactly?

Gaël:

Well, since I joined RTL, at first RTL was a little bit of everything. We were a small team, so it was local news, international news, sports when needed to be done as well. There was local news, international news, sports when needed to be done as well. But as soon as the team grew, of course, then you could spend more time on the problematics that you thought were important.

Masti:

Yeah, true, because you wanted to do political things in the beginning.

Gaël:

Yeah, that was always the goal. Uh, of course I I don't want to make anybody angry, but uh, the luxembourgish political scene is less exciting, let's say, than the american yeah, right now for example and let me be clear, I'm not excited about Donald Trump at all, but there's so much going on and there's so much at stake. When you look at what's going on, in politics in North America.

Gaël:

That yeah, looking at Luxembourg, you have to put it in perspective. But yeah, at some point I started working again on what I really wanted to work on. That, I would say, would have been two years into RTL, john, pretty much before that. You had to build up a name, a website.

Masti:

Become a person that they actually acknowledge.

Gaël:

Yeah, I mean, at first the names were not necessarily important because RTL was not big on signing. That has changed now. But it was more about becoming just one of the news outlets that people are following and from there on you can maybe go more into depth and give them some real journalistic work.

Masti:

And how can one maybe picture what your everyday life looks like, especially in times like now where we have, let's say, america you mentioned it already in the politics there, or even the latest things, like the Pope that died. Tell us what a day looks like when there's so much happening in the world.

Gaël:

That's actually what I love the most about my job is you never know, you have no idea.

Gaël:

Yesterday, for example, I thought it was going to be quite a calm and a day where I could organize, make some appointments for, for example, my show that I have, and maybe prepare some new stories and get creative, but in the end I sat down and I cannot talk about it because it's still under embargo. But there's something coming up now today at five that I had to work on all day and then I had to be in charge of the information after nine, which was Champions League mostly, and that also went much longer than it was supposed to. Yeah, and I started my day at 10 in the morning and did it at midnight

Masti:

oh my god, this was supposed to be a chill day at chill day at work.

Gaël:

In the end I I worked pretty much uh non-stop until I did have a small break to have dinner with my family and then I kept on working, yeah does that happen often uh you're laughing. That means yes six years ago I would have told you no. Now we're 2025. Pandemic happened, Ukraine happened, uh, Gaza happened, Donald Trump happened. Now it's very, very, very common.

Gaël:

It's very common that you have days like this. I used to. When I started in RTL there used to be you knew, for example, July was going to be slow. The administrations are closed, the Justice Department takes a break as well, the police is in fewer numbers, even though they will never admit it, but they're in fewer numbers. So you get less news. Logically, you get less news. There's going to be less to do, and that's also why people maybe will understand that through that. Normally you have those magazine pieces, those funny pieces, those pieces that are a little bit less news. They come up in the summer because then we have time to do them. We don't have time in September, January, and right now it's pretty random. It can happen at any time. I mean, somebody dying, that's something you can never foresee, of course.

Gaël:

It's very, very, very common that we have days that are crazy.

Masti:

We as a group here at the university visited RTL not too long ago and I've experienced the building and how many people are actually involved in that, are actually involved in that. So you as a journalist, is it really working alone or is it really a team?

Gaël:

It definitely helps if you have a good chemistry with your teammates or workmates. But yeah, I would say it depends on what you work on. If you work on radio, you can do a lot of stuff by yourself and you will do a lot of stuff by yourself, meaning, I don't know preparing the show you have and talking to the people you're inviting on the show, preparing your story, your questions, and then even doing the editing. You do it yourself. Your story, your questions, and then even doing the editing, you do it yourself. If you do a story that's, uh, maybe, uh, just written, you're gonna do a lot of it by yourself as well, especially in digital, in the digital day, because when you're, when you work for a paper, generally, you always have a photographer that is with you, but he stays normally 10, 15 minutes, so the rest of the job is yours, up to you.

Gaël:

Yeah, except sports events, etc. But even then, then you will be around the field and you will be in the press spaces. But I would say, one place where it's really true it's the TV. That's video. If you have any video involved, or a camera involved, of course, then you need to work with a cameraman, you need to sometimes work with lighting, you need to work with um, after that with an editor, and then your story gets made by, yeah, pretty much three to four different people. That's really teamwork. And what we're doing more and more not just us, but everybody in the media is doing those video reportages that go online straight away that don't necessarily need to go on TV first, because we do have the TV in Luxembourg, which is a big part of RTL. The way people consume the news today is more and more through social media, so we have to do more and more video, because people don't have the patience to read anymore.

Masti:

No, they don't. Mostly, you said that they reached out to you to have you there as a new journalist. I don't think that would be the case today, probably. Maybe if I were interested, I had to reach out to RTL to become a journalist.

Gaël:

Yeah, I mean that happened with Le Quotidien. It was kind of luck, I would say, and lucky that somebody read me and said OK, we need somebody, so let's call him. With RTL, I saw an ad. They were looking for French-speaking journalists and I applied and did a few meetings with the old CEO the CEO that was before the current one and he said, OK, you're coming to RTL and we're excited to have you. And that went actually pretty quickly, much quicker than I thought. I thought I could finish up my master's, so that was not in the cards at the time.

Masti:

I mean I would have asked if you regret, kind of not finishing your master's. But from what I've heard that you've been there for 12 years, I think it's not as important anymore.

Gaël:

It depends. I mean, there's days where I think. If I start something, I need to finish it. Even stupid, something stupid like a show, if I watch 10 minutes, even if I don't like it, I'll finish it, yeah, so, uh, I, I would like today still to finish it. The problem is, uh, the more you go in your profession and the more you go as well. I have a son now and he's 18 months old.

Gaël:

You have less and less time to do these things yeah so it becomes less of a priority, but if I can I'll finish it yeah,

Masti:

I'm also wondering, with the the times at the moment where days can be crazy, how do you even manage to kind of meet up with your family and have that time for yourself, maybe also, and combine a job and have it like balanced?

Gaël:

I do something very bad, which is sleepless. Uh, pretty much I sleep less because then it gives me when the little one is sleeping and I have done my day of work, then I can be a little bit, spend some time with my wife and then when she goes to she goes to sleep. I always call her grandma because she goes to sleep very early. Then I have a little bit of me time, yeah, and generally if I don't watch the time that can go on a bit too far in the night. So I try to find a balance. But yeah, I need to get better at sleeping more.

Masti:

So would you say that journalism is overall just more tiring than one could expect?

Gaël:

I mean, it really depends how you do, how you work. I have co-workers that work more than me, and I'm a pretty hard worker yeah and I have other co-workers that work much less yeah so of course it depends on how much pressure you put on yourself yeah how much pressure your boss puts puts on you as well, of course.

Gaël:

Uh, it really depends on how you do your job. If you're really passionate about your job, which is the case for me, you tend to go over what you need to do and then maybe lose a little bit of time. Uh, I try to always keep time for family, but for yourself, for example, um, but if you take it easier, then it's easier of course.

Masti:

And you mentioned pressure quite often. How do you cope with pressure?

Gaël:

I work very well under pressure. Yeah. That's actually something I've always been. I've been a very good student most of my student life, but I always work the same way. I waited till last minute.

Gaël:

If I had a big test coming, or exam, or even like dissertation of 20 pages or whatever, I would write it the day before.

Gaël:

Procrastination A little bit yeah.

Gaël:

But when I got there and the pressure was on, no problem. Yeah. The pages came flying. That's just the way I work. Yeah, no, I still do it the same way.

Masti:

I'm just wondering, because maybe there are people out there that really would like to become a journalist too, and maybe even thought of okay, maybe I will sign up at RTL.

Masti:

I just want them to kind of get a feel of what the workload can be like and what kind of pressure there can be, from what I've seen. On that day we went to visit RTL I've never seen people that looked so calm and collected, even though everything was like on fire. There were so many news coming up and people had to work, but they looked like peace, like they looked so peaceful.

Gaël:

Well, we're used to it. That's pretty much it, and maybe 10 years ago it would have been a different scene. But we've had pandemics, wars we had so many, we had inflation, we had so many things happening that, to be honest, now the death of the pope was easy to handle in comparison with, for example, everything closing down when the pandemic started, because we ourselves, when it starts, don't know where we're going. We're just getting information from everywhere and we're trying to give it to the public as clear and as fast as possible. But yeah, pressure can be very, very high. But I mean, if you go into journalism, you shouldn't expect to be sitting around and doing nothing. Then you need to find some other type of job.

Masti:

I mean you said you were good with pressure, however, before starting, maybe you had a different expectation, or did you really expect all the things? That kind of happened that way.

Gaël:

I went into it, kind of a blank page. Yeah. I said let's see what happens. And I was not disappointed. The pressure was on, but at the same time I got quite lucky, especially with my bosses in the early times of my career. So I had people that would put pressure on you, but constructively, not try to make it hard for you to work but, tell you OK, this needs to be done and you need to be ready.

Gaël:

You have until 11. Okay, then you start organising your day and organising what you're going to write first, what you're going to start with and what you need to do last minute because you have no other choice. And that's one thing I mean, which I love about it, and some people hate it. You'll have a lot of moments where you have to wing it yeah, I mean you cannot see so many things coming.

Gaël:

Something trivial like yesterday everybody thought okay, the game between inter milan and barcelona is over, yeah it's over, barcelona has won, and what happens? They score last minute. You go into overtime maybe. Then they score again. Then you go into penalties. You thought maybe your day was going to be done at 10. It's done at 12, maybe even, and that's trivial. But imagine you put this into perspective, into the political perspective. Yesterday, actually, there's kind of a war that started between India and Pakistan.

Gaël:

And that happened at the same time that you need to handle as well. We are lucky to have some tools that help us, like international agencies. Everybody uses them and pays for their services. Le Monde as well, which is to me one of the references that helps at that point. But then you have to look into it from the Luxembourgish perspective. You cannot do it straight away, but you got to think about other Pakistanis in Luxembourg. Are they Indians? How many? How are they impacted by this? Are there visa problems? Are they here in this? Can they recall people to go into the army, for example?

Gaël:

These are things that come up later, but this is you when this comes up, you know when you have experience in in those things, you know what's going to come down and how much work is going to come from it as well

Masti:

I'm just curious, uh, when you hear like something like that happen, you're, you're oh my God, this is going to be a very long day Like just by the news, like, oh no, this happened. You just call your wife. Oh, I'm not coming home for dinner tonight.

Gaël:

That has happened. The good thing, the one good thing about the pandemic is that it became a bit more.

Masti:

Flexible.

Gaël:

Yeah, all of the employers became more flexible with homeworking, so when these things happen and it's, for example, champions League, you can then finish your day at home. That's possible, it's doable, depending on what you do. I mean, the TV presenter has to be in the studio. He has no other choice. But if it's for the online news website, you can do that part of the job from home and everything else. Where you need a studio, where you need a recording system or cameras, of course you need to be there present. I'm also curious about what is maybe one job you had as a journalist. You're the piece I did about the war in Gaza. I was in contact with the Coordinatrice d'urgence from MSF that's there, that's been deployed there for weeks and doing a story about what's going on there, with how much we can actually do, because they don't let journalists into Gaza anymore.

Gaël:

The ones that are still there. They were there from the start and they cannot go out either. Yeah, so what we get is pretty much information from people that are there we cannot do ourselves. I would not mind going. I mean, a lot of people find that uh weird, uh and dangerous. Yeah, but that's the.

Masti:

The thrill probably.

Gaël:

No, but it's also why I got into journalism as well. I don't want to be doing fluff pieces, I want to do pieces that matter, and maybe that's why I would tell you, for example lately, I would say, the piece on Gaza I did very happy about how it turned out.

Masti:

Maybe that's also the part where we can rephrase what you said about actions speak louder than words

Gaël:

Of course of course, and today we can see that, with the international community not lifting a finger in Gaza and in this conflict, we know why I mean it's not a secret anymore, why I mean it's not a secret anymore. The only reason Israel can do what they're doing without having problems with Europe or any other nations in the world is because the United States stand behind them, and so nobody really dares to confront them. But what's happening in Gaza is absolutely horrible.

Masti:

How do you, with such a big conflict, do journalistic work around that?

Gaël:

The biggest challenge we have is, of course, we cannot go to Gaza, we cannot be in there and anyways I think a lot of media outlets wouldn't send anybody because there's a very big chance we won't come back with the strikes being done the way they've been done. There's enough reporters have died already, and even like humanitarian workers that have died. So also shows that already kind of shows the problem in Gaza.

Gaël:

And to do a complete piece, I would say you would have to be there and with cameras, with everything you need. But the problem is in conflict zones. If you record the wrong thing, it doesn't matter if Israeli or Hamas you might end up dead and they will never come out to the light.

Gaël:

So, we have to trust the people that represent honest organizations like, for example, médecins Sans Frontières, doctors Without Borders. You have to trust them because you don't really have a choice and the numbers, I think, kind of speak for themselves. Yeah, uh, nobody's saying that the attack uh on Israel was not horrible, but I think the answer uh has been disproportionate completely disproportionate and absolutely um kind of forgetting about the fact that Gaza is a place where people lived.

Gaël:

And it's not full of terrorists that want to harm the world and Israel. It's families, it's kids, it's mothers, it's men. I forget to mention them a lot, but I mean I think the latest numbers were 53 000 dead, and that's without counting the people that had they have not found in the rubbles. I mean that in itself already speaks to the conflict. Of course we would have to. If you wanted to do a complete journalistic, journalistic work, you would have. You would have to follow hamas, you would have to talk to hamas, you would have to follow the israeli forces... would they ever agree? I don't think so., one or the other side, but the question is if you, for example, talk about the comments, I see them as well. I think most of the time, it's people that are, first of all, not informed.

Gaël:

Second of all, they're biased yeah, they're biased, so,

Masti:

but they're also biased because it's because I think journalistic work can be very good, but it can also, like I said, people are biased because of what they read and it also depends on the sources, of course.

Masti:

But maybe just out of that new question that pops up in my head, for you, is it important to you to maybe make things clear so that the person who reads your article can be assured? Ok, this is some information that is going to not make me

Masti:

. Well, it's hard to say, because people will be biased anyways, whatever you put out, but maybe to have an overview where they can rethink their positions. Well, it's hard to say, because people will be biased anyways, whatever you put out, but maybe to have a overview where they can rethink their positions

Gaël:

yeah, I mean, whatever happens, we try to be as objective as it's as possible.

Gaël:

but let's, let's be clear, objectiveness is it's, it's a goal. Yeah, most of the time already, if you're interested in a subject, you're already not subjective anymore. That's a big talk actually that you can already have, that we have in RTL, that you can have with anybody that has written anything down ever. If you choose to talk about Gaza, it's because you're interested in Gaza. And why are you interested in Gaza? It's because you have your own opinions bias or whatever, your own opinions bias or whatever the thing is. The only thing we can do to bring some level of information is pretty much to talk about the facts. And it's not disputed. The number of dead is not disputed by Israel at all and I think they're not disputing it because they probably know that it's much higher.

Gaël:

Okay. So all of that already speaks for itself. But of course, when I write my article and when I prepare my TV report because it also comes on TV and I try to be as objective as possible but when I talk to sources and that's also something else that you can do to show people we're really trying to give you information from there, from neutral standpoint. I mean, MSF is not there. I mean, if there's an Israeli on the ground injured or if there's a Gazawi on the ground injured, they will treat them both. They are neutral. And if they tell you what they're doing in Gaza is ethnic cleansing, I would think it's pretty hard to refute.

Gaël:

Because, again, this is not a political party, this is not.

Masti:

They don't have to be biased.

Gaël:

No, they come to help the civilians. The civilians and sometimes also people, soldiers, that are injured, anybody that's injured, they will go and help. The images that we saw a few weeks ago with these ambulances stopping to try to help people and they get shot, for example, shows one first, the first thing is that they will go and help whatever happens, and then they get shot. That's another discussion altogether, uh. But yeah, we try to give the stay as objective as possible, but the facts, they're not disputed they're there and from there you can make your own opinion.

Gaël:

Of course we're not, uh, we're not telling you, you need to believe everything yeah, true but you can also uh, as you do do in France. You have medias that are from the left side of politics, medias that are from the right side that's not the case here, for example, everybody tells you you need to be as objective as possible. In Luxembourg, that's the way it is in Germany as well. Yes, there's also built in all those, but there's at least they're trying to be objective.

Gaël:

France liberation is leftists. We know that Parisien is from the right. We know that. Then you can also go and take the information from one media and the other and compare it. Nobody's stopping you and nobody's saying we have the absolute truth all the time yeah this is some a matter that's going on on top of it, so very, very probably, uh, in 20 years, when we talk about this conflict, very probably the numbers that we gave, we were given today were wrong?

Masti:

yeah, just because you mentioned that this is like the work you're most proud of, right? Um, how long does this kind of work take to prepare?

Gaël:

that one was, uh, also a surprise, kind of. I was trying to set up a meeting with this representative of doctors without borders and she was supposed to get back to me in the following week, because Gaza was, uh is a war zone, very simply, and they have to move a lot and they have to avoid strikes and they have to find a way to find internet as well, which is not easy, especially since they rely on gas to have any type of electricity there, and the gas has been blocked now for 60 days I think, by the Israeli Gas and food and everything has been blocked. That is something, again, It's not the media saying it, it's just what's happening at the border, which was documented, showed, recorded, and they have their reasons. Hamas says they have the other reasons. That's something else.

Gaël:

And in the end, I was talking to the representatives of MSF in Luxembourg and they just went like, can you interview her in five minutes? Yeah, ok, let me find a studio that's free and let's go. And in the end, something that was going to take a week took an afternoon, I would say.

Gaël:

I mean Gaza is something I've been following. Yeah, for a longer time now. So now I don't need to do all the ground research, it's done already. So to write it was faster, let's say, let's say, two afternoons all together with the editing and everything together. So, yeah, it's uh, it's part of the job. It uh, it was supposed to happen the week after. In the end we did it very fast and it came unexpected of the job.

Masti:

Maybe to refer it back to students a little what would you say to people that are interested in writing and have maybe like it a lot and are interested in joining journalism? What is your advice for them?

Gaël:

Read.

Gaël:

This is the advice I was given at the time and I didn't really follow it, but I did.

Gaël:

During my career, I read a lot of great journalists French, American, Luxembourgish, doesn't matter and it does help you see how they put information forth. What's, in your eyes, the most efficient way to talk to the audience as well, because that's one of the biggest problems we're having right now is to get them to listen and to want to inform themselves, because social media has taken over so many aspects of our lives that people actually get their information from social media and from instagram comments and I don't even want to start on tiktok, um, but yeah, um, I would say read, read a lot, uh, what you like to read, but read, stay in touch with what's going on. If you want to be in any type of journalism, you can do sports journalism, you can do cultural journalism, that's not at all the problem but then you need to know what's going on, because otherwise you're going to be if you let it go for a long time you're going to be completely flooded with information as soon as you start any type of story.

Gaël:

It's uh kind of logical. I mean, it's like, uh, if you, during your studies, didn't do anything for six months and then you want, at the last moment, start to learn everything everybody learned in six months, you're gonna have a problem. So read, uh, keep yourself informed in touch with what's going on, and uh, yeah, and try to find one thing you're really passionate about, because that's going to be a possibility down the road. Down the road, maybe it's at the start you will do something you like less, because they need a journalist, and I don't in sports and you're not really a sports person, but you know how to write, you know how to report. You can start there. Maybe, I don't know, later become a housing specialist.

Masti:

Do you? Yeah, like you did. So you say, if you have the skill set, you can kind of put it onto every kind of topic.

Gaël:

Yeah, I believe so, I believe so. I mean, if you have the, of course it takes experience. You will have to experience how it goes, how it works as well. Not every media outlet works the same way, but as soon as you have the basics, you can pretty much write about anything if you're interested. If you're not interested, it's always the hardest part. If you give me I don't know, if you give me Tour de France tomorrow, I will not be good. I will not be good at writing, I will not be good at reporting because I'm not interested at all. That, of course, is a problem. But when you start I mean that's my point of view when you start you take what's there.

Masti:

Yeah, that's what I thought too. Maybe one last thing, because I didn't touch on that is because you were in Brussels. You came to Luxembourg, but did you do any kind of exchange?

Gaël:

Yes, I went to Berlin. That actually was part of the two years in Luxembourg. I did an Erasmus in Berlin, which was amazing. I still love that city. I met so many great people there. And again, this was a different experience because Freie Universität Berlin is also one of those huge universities. If you don't show up, nobody cares. So you have to hold yourself accountable, Otherwise you will do nothing for six months, which is the case for a lot of Erasmus students, and I understand them. I mean, I do have today a view on the university time, kind of you should figure out what you want and if it takes one more year, two more years, do it.

Gaël:

It doesn't matter

Masti:

You mean, you shouldn't care about how long it takes you in university, just kind of try to find out what thing you're good at.

Gaël:

Yeah, I think, by the way, that comes back to your question before. Yeah, I think that's where university is great. It will help you figure out what you want. Yeah, one way or another it can be your classes, it can be your teachers, it can be somebody you meet, it doesn't really matter. But that's also kind of the beauty of a campus, I think, is that so many things can happen without you even expecting it. And that's why I think, in my eyes, the university step is kind of critical to jump into professional life later. Of course there's people that have shown that they didn't need university to succeed.

Gaël:

We have so many startups, we have so many Microsoft guys and et cetera that never finished the university studies. Good for them, yeah, good for them, but I'm sure they met people that helped them down the line through their first experience there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Or gave them an idea.

Masti:

And they probably did go to university.

Gaël:

Yeah, for most of them they did.

Masti:

I hope you enjoyed this episode of Alumni Stories. If you want to get in touch with our guests, are interested in applying or need more details about the Bachelor of European Culture study program here at the University of Luxembourg, check out the description of today's episode, where I've added all the information you'll need. That's all for now, but we'll be back soon, and I hope you will be too Maybe even soon on campus.

People on this episode

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Masti Shaswar

Host
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Ariane Henry

Producer