diff --git a/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/internaldownloadbackend.lua b/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/internaldownloadbackend.lua
index 1ba18742a..0ff5003c1 100644
--- a/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/internaldownloadbackend.lua
+++ b/plugins/newsdownloader.koplugin/internaldownloadbackend.lua
@@ -2,23 +2,45 @@ local http = require("socket.http")
 local https = require("ssl.https")
 local logger = require("logger")
 local ltn12 = require("ltn12")
+local socket = require('socket')
 local socket_url = require("socket.url")
 
 local InternalDownloadBackend = {}
+local max_redirects = 10; --prevent infinite redirects
 
-function InternalDownloadBackend:getResponseAsString(url)
-    local resp_lines = {}
+function InternalDownloadBackend:getResponseAsString(url, redirectCount)
+    if not redirectCount then
+        redirectCount = 0
+    elseif redirectCount == max_redirects then
+        error("InternalDownloadBackend: reached max redirects: ", redirectCount)
+    end
+    logger.dbg("InternalDownloadBackend: url :", url)
+    local request, sink = {}, {}
+    request['sink'] = ltn12.sink.table(sink)
+    request['url'] = url
     local parsed = socket_url.parse(url)
-    local httpRequest = parsed.scheme == 'http' and http.request or https.request
-    httpRequest({ url = url, sink = ltn12.sink.table(resp_lines), })
-    return table.concat(resp_lines)
+
+    local httpRequest = parsed.scheme == 'http' and http.request or https.request;
+    local code, headers, status = socket.skip(1, httpRequest(request))
+
+    if code ~= 200 then
+        logger.dbg("InternalDownloadBackend: HTTP response code <> 200. Response status: ", status)
+        if code and code > 299 and code < 400  and headers and headers["location"] then -- handle 301, 302...
+           local redirected_url = headers["location"]
+           logger.dbg("InternalDownloadBackend: Redirecting to url: ", redirected_url)
+           return self:getResponseAsString(redirected_url, redirectCount + 1)
+        else
+           error("InternalDownloadBackend: Don't know how to handle HTTP response status: ", status)
+        end
+    end
+    return table.concat(sink)
 end
 
-function InternalDownloadBackend:download(link, path)
-    logger.dbg("InternalDownloadBackend: News file will be stored to :", path)
-    local parsed = socket_url.parse(link)
-    local httpRequest = parsed.scheme == 'http' and http.request or https.request
-    httpRequest({ url = link, sink = ltn12.sink.file(io.open(path, "w")), })
+function InternalDownloadBackend:download(url, path)
+   local response = self:getResponseAsString(url)
+   local file = io.open(path, 'w')
+   file:write(response)
+   file:close()
 end
 
 return InternalDownloadBackend