Media workers, NGOs urge True Story Festival to include Ukrainian journalists, exclude some Russian ones

Illustration by the IMI

Ukrainian media professionals and civil society are calling on the True Story Festival to include Ukrainian journalists in the program and exclude some Russian speakers, as stated in the joint address to which the Institute of Mass Information is a signatory.

The festival is set to take place in Bern on June 20–22, 2025. The address raises concerns regarding the event's program, such as that the segments in any way related to the Russo–Ukrainian war feature at least five speakers from Russia, the aggressor state that has been waging war on Ukraine since 2014, while the voices of Ukrainian journalists representing the nation victimized by the aggression are completely absent from the program.

“This is not only deeply unfair. It is ethically unacceptable. We value the contribution of independent Russian journalists in exposing the crimes of the regime. However, speaking only about Russia, or about Ukraine without Ukrainian journalists, distorts reality. It creates the risk of losing the truth in reporting—the very truth that the True Story Festival is meant to seek,” the address says.

The authors add that they are concerned not only with the lack of Ukrainian voices, but also with the focus of some speeches. For instance, the festival is set to include yet another discussion of “Putin’s Children” (Ilya Rozhdestvenski’s story from September 2024) instead of highlighting the investigations into the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children and the cultural genocide in Ukraine's occupied territories.

“Dmitry Muratov is once again given a platform to speak about the "challenges of independent Russian media"—at a time when Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna was killed in Russian captivity, and thousands of our colleagues and hundreds of media outlets have suffered due to Russian aggression. The festival aims to discuss the “Wagnerites” and “prisoners returning from the Russian-Ukrainian war”—in other words, war criminals—instead of telling the stories of tens of thousands of Ukrainian civilians who are illegally held in Russian prisons. Sadly, such plans appear inadequate and secondary,” the address reads.

In view of the above, the authors call on the organizers to:

1. Immediately include Ukrainian journalists in the festival program—those who cover the consequences of the war, crimes against civilians, genocidal practices, child deportations, and the disappearance of reporters.
2. Reconsider the focus of the sessions to avoid replacing the context of the war with stories about the “inner pain” of the aggressor state. Remove at least some of the Russian speakers from the program.
3. Ensure balance and representation of victims, as required by the basic standards of ethical journalism.

“True Story Festival should be a place for truth. We believe that only diversity of voices, honesty, and sensitivity to context can preserve trust in journalism as a profession,” the address concludes.

The address was signed by:

Oles Ilchenko, writer

Alla Boyko, philology PhD, professor, journalist

Iryna Mykhalkiv-Vinnyk, member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine

Pylyp Orlyk Institute of Democracy

Media Movement

Detector Media

Institute of Mass Information