Call for Entries Opened and New Main Jury

Starting now, published reports from around the world can be submitted for the 2027 True Story Award. The goal of the award is to bring together journalists from around the world at the annual True Story Festival and to foster dialogue with the audience and among the journalists themselves in Bern.

“Research” recognizes outstanding journalistic investigation. Criteria for evaluation include the scope of the investigation, the time invested, the analysis of data, the difficulty of gathering information, and the risks taken during the investigation.

“Storytelling” recognizes the exceptional linguistic quality of a report. The evaluation takes into account the structure and composition of the text, the integration of facts and narrative elements, linguistic elegance, and the literary quality of the non-fiction text.

“Impact” recognizes the social impact of a feature story. Factors considered include newsworthiness, the response from readers, and potential effects on politics, the economy, and society.

Ideally, an outstanding feature story combines strengths in all three areas. However, when submitting an entry, entrants must decide in which category they would prefer their text to be evaluated. The application process remains unchanged.

The call for entries runs until 31 October 2026, 12:00 noon UTC. Reportage published between 1 October 2025 and 30 September 2026 is eligible. Texts in ten of the world's major languages are admitted, as well as translations of original texts not written in one of these languages. Editorial teams may also submit reportage from their publications.

The jury of renowned experts from journalism, publishing, education and literature reads and assesses every text submitted. For each category and language region, one author is nominated for the True Story Award 2027. A total of 36 journalists are invited to Bern for the award ceremony and the True Story Festival, which takes place from 3 to 7 June 2027. On site, the main jury selects the three winning texts from the nominated reportage. The prize money amounts to US$ 20,000 per category.

Since the True Story Award was founded in 2019, the seven members of the main jury have been the public face of the prize. Each year they were presented with the 36 nominated texts, which had previously been selected by the global jury of representatives from various countries and languages. The debates lasted several hours, until the winning texts were decided shortly before the award ceremony. Given the exceptionally high quality of the entries from around the world, the deliberations were hard fought.

After seven years, this main jury is stepping down. It will remain with the True Story Foundation, however: its experience, expertise and perspectives will continue to contribute in other roles.

A new main jury takes over for the True Story Award 2027. Its members are:

• Can Dündar (Turkey/Germany), former editor-in-chief of Cumhuriyet, documentary filmmaker and author. Following a conviction for espionage, he lives in exile in Berlin.
  
  
• Sheila Coronel (Philippines/USA), founder of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and professor at Columbia University. She lives in New York and Manila.
  
  
• Peter Hessler (USA/China), journalist and staff writer at the New Yorker, author of four books about China and a former literature lecturer in China. He lives in western Colorado.
  
  
• Ramita Navai (Iran/United Kingdom), journalist, award-winning documentary filmmaker and author of "City of Lies: Love, Sex, Death and the Search for Truth in Tehran". She lives in London.
  
  
• Kamel Daoud (Algeria/France), writer and journalist, worked for Le Quotidien d'Oran and received the Prix Goncourt for his most recent novel, "Houris". He lives in Paris.
  
  
• Dinesh Balliah (South Africa), director of the Wits Centre for Journalism, active on numerous media company boards. She lives in Johannesburg.