diff --git a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/replication/HttpResponse.java b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/replication/HttpResponse.java
index f26128c..595acc7 100644
--- a/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/replication/HttpResponse.java
+++ b/src/main/java/com/googlesource/gerrit/plugins/replication/HttpResponse.java
@@ -14,6 +14,8 @@
 
 package com.googlesource.gerrit.plugins.replication;
 
+import static java.nio.charset.StandardCharsets.UTF_8;
+
 import com.google.common.base.Preconditions;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.InputStreamReader;
@@ -34,7 +36,7 @@
 
   public Reader getReader() throws IllegalStateException, IOException {
     if (reader == null && response.getEntity() != null) {
-      reader = new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent());
+      reader = new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent(), UTF_8);
     }
     return reader;
   }