diff --git a/src/coredump/coredump.c b/src/coredump/coredump.c
index 0c888b26f9..20c1fb0247 100644
--- a/src/coredump/coredump.c
+++ b/src/coredump/coredump.c
@@ -800,9 +800,10 @@ log:
                 return log_oom();
 
         if (journald_crash) {
-                /* We cannot log to the journal, so just print the MESSAGE.
+                /* We cannot log to the journal, so just print the message.
                  * The target was set previously to something safe. */
-                log_dispatch(LOG_ERR, 0, core_message);
+                assert(startswith(core_message, "MESSAGE="));
+                log_dispatch(LOG_ERR, 0, core_message + strlen("MESSAGE="));
                 return 0;
         }