diff --git a/app/journal.py b/app/journal.py
index 16bd00e..a628f26 100644
--- a/app/journal.py
+++ b/app/journal.py
@@ -44,7 +44,9 @@ def format_entries(entries: list[dict[str, Any]]) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
     Entries without a realtime timestamp are dropped. The local time is
     formatted as HH:MM:SS (invalid timestamps render as an empty string),
     PRIORITY defaults to 6 (info), and the identifier falls back
-    SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER -> _COMM -> _PID.
+    SYSLOG_IDENTIFIER -> _COMM -> _PID. A MESSAGE that is a JSON array —
+    journald encodes non-UTF-8 payloads as byte lists and multi-value
+    fields as string lists — is decoded or joined into a single line.
 
     Args:
         entries: dicts from parse_lines.
@@ -67,7 +69,13 @@ def format_entries(entries: list[dict[str, Any]]) -> list[dict[str, Any]]:
             prio = int(e.get("PRIORITY", "6"))
         except ValueError:
             prio = 6
-        msg = e.get("MESSAGE", "").rstrip("\n")
+        raw_msg: str | list[Any] | None = e.get("MESSAGE")
+        if isinstance(raw_msg, list):
+            if raw_msg and all(isinstance(m, int) for m in raw_msg):
+                raw_msg = bytes(raw_msg).decode("utf-8", errors="replace")
+            else:
+                raw_msg = " ".join(str(m) for m in raw_msg)
+        msg = (raw_msg or "").rstrip("\n")
         out.append(
             {
                 "stamp": stamp,