SOVA News, a Tbilisi-based independent Russian-language media outlet, says that its old domain, to which it lost access in June 2024, has been taken over by an “unknown person” spreading Russian propaganda. “SOVA has experienced blocking of access to its website and theft of content, which can be regarded as misinformation of readers and obstruction of our professional activities,” the media outlet said.
“Judging by the new content of the site, which uses the name of our legal entity sova.news, Russian propaganda is behind the manipulation of the resource, trying to mislead our audience,” the online media agency said in its statement published on October 15. There is reason to believe, the statement says “that we are dealing with an attempt of political interference in the work of the website.”
Marta Ardashelia, editor-in-chief of SOVA, in her Facebook status on the current situation on the issue, quotes one of the headlines of the news published on the old domain of SOVA, which calls Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine a “special military operation”, in line with the narrative of Russian propaganda.
“On behalf of the editorial staff of SOVA, I state that our old website is not managed by us, moreover, the data about its new owner is closed and unknown to us at this moment. The materials published on that site are not created by our editorial staff,” she wrote.
According to the statement of SOVA, the old domain sova.news had been canceled due to some “dubious actions” and the site was moved to the new address sovanews.tv, which is the only real address of the publication.
“Now, however, it turned out that the domain belonging to SOVA was bought out by an ‘unknown person’, and a crude fake of our resource with partially stolen content appeared on the web at this address”, the news outlet said.