Українською читайте тут.
We, members of the Ukrainian media community and civil society, are writing to you with deep concern regarding the program of the upcoming True Story Festival, scheduled to take place in Bern from June 20 to 22, 2025. In the sections that address, directly or indirectly, the topic of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the list of speakers includes at least five representatives of the Russian Federation—the aggressor country that has been waging war against Ukraine since 2014. At the same time, the festival program completely lacks the voices of Ukrainian journalists—the representatives of the nation that is the victim of this aggression.
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.
We are concerned not only about the absence of Ukrainian voices but also about the focus of some sessions. For example, the festival plans to once again highlight “Putin's children” (a story by Ilya Rozhdestvensky from September 2024), instead of investigating the abduction of thousands of Ukrainian children and the cultural genocide taking place in the 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.
We call on the organizers to:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Oles Ilchenko, writer
- Alla Boyko, Doctor of Philology, Professor, Journalist
- Iryna Mykhalkiv-Vinnyk, member of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine
- Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy
- Media Movement
- Detector Media
- Institute of Mass Information
- Dmytro Tuzov, host at Radio NV
- Daria Hirna
- Yana Brenzei, anchor of “Vikna-Novyny” program, STB
- Andriy Yanitskyi, media and communications manager
- Ukraїner Team
- Euromaidan Press
Background: Media Movement is a community that unites journalists from leading Ukrainian media outlets, investigative reporters, and experts from media-focused civil society organizations. The Media Movement was founded on February 5, 2019.
The first signatories of the Media Movement memorandum included: the First Channel of Suspilne (Public Broadcaster), Ukrainian Radio, Hromadske Radio, Ukrinform News Agency, Interfax-Ukraine News Agency, Liga.net, Dzerkalo Tyzhnia. Ukraina, NV, Censor.Net, Channel 5, Ukrainian Week, Opinion, several regional media outlets, the Independent Media Council, and civil society organizations such as Detector Media, Institute of Mass Information, Internews Ukraine, Center for Democracy and Rule of Law, Suspilnist Foundation, National Media Association, DII, Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy, and Zmina Human Rights Center.
Later, other organizations and individual journalists joined, bringing the total number of participants to over 70. On November 16, 2021, representatives of leading media outlets called on journalists to unite in the professional community "Media Movement" to resist political and commercial pressure on freedom of speech. The statement was initiated by 29 journalists and experts, whose names are available here.
