diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 6621ed6b15..149ef038a7 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,4 +1,10 @@
 # selfoss news
+## 2.20 – unreleased
+
+### Bug fixes
+- Configuration parser was changed to *raw* method, which relaxes the requirement to quote option values containing special characters in `config.ini`. ([#1371](https://github.com/fossar/selfoss/issues/1371))
+
+
 ## 2.19 – 2022-10-12
 **This version requires PHP 5.6 or newer. It is also the last version to support PHP 7.**
 
diff --git a/src/helpers/Configuration.php b/src/helpers/Configuration.php
index b2cbd670af..b2c0329be9 100644
--- a/src/helpers/Configuration.php
+++ b/src/helpers/Configuration.php
@@ -171,7 +171,7 @@ class Configuration {
     public function __construct($configPath = null, $environment = []) {
         // read config.ini, if it exists
         if ($configPath !== null && file_exists($configPath)) {
-            $config = parse_ini_file($configPath);
+            $config = parse_ini_file($configPath, false, INI_SCANNER_RAW);
             if ($config === false) {
                 throw new Exception('Error loading config.ini');
             }