SOVA News, an independent Russian-language media outlet based in Tbilisi, claims that its old domain to which it lost acces in June 2024 has been taken over and used by “unknown persons” spreading Russian propaganda. “SOVA has been blocked from accessing its website, and content was stolen. This can be considered as misinformation to readers and obstruction of professional activities,” said the media outlet.
In a statement published on October 15, the online media agency stated that “Russian propaganda is behind the manipulation and misinformation of our audience, judging by the new content, which uses our legal entity’s name sova.news.” The statement states that there is reason to suspect “that we may be dealing with an attempt at political interference in the website’s work.”
Marta Ardashelia is the editor-in chief of SOVA. In her Facebook status about the current situation, she quotes one of headlines from the news published on SOVA’s old domain, which refers to Russia‘s war in Ukraine as a “special operation” in line with Russian propaganda.
“On behalf the editorial staff of SOVA I declare that our old website was not managed by us. Moreover, the data regarding its new owner are closed and unknown to us currently. “The materials published on that website were not created by our staff,” she wrote.
According to a statement by SOVA, due to “dubious acts”, the old domain of sova.news was canceled and the site moved to sovanews.tv. This is the only address that the publication has.
“Now it has been revealed that the domain owned by SOVA was purchased by an ‘unknown’ person, and a crude spoof of our resource, with content partially stolen, appeared on the internet at this address”, said the news outlet.
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