diff --git a/scripts/release b/scripts/release
index 9b6d4e81c..09556c70c 100755
--- a/scripts/release
+++ b/scripts/release
@@ -27,8 +27,8 @@ twine upload -r pypi dist/borgmatic-*.tar.gz
 twine upload -r pypi dist/borgmatic-*-py3-none-any.whl
 
 # Set release changelogs on projects.evoworx.org and GitHub.
-release_changelog=$(sed '/^$/q' NEWS |grep '^\s*\*')
-escaped_release_changelog=$(echo $release_changelog | sed -z 's/\n/\\n/g')
+release_changelog="$(cat NEWS | sed '/^$/q' | grep -v '^\S')"
+escaped_release_changelog="$(echo "$release_changelog" | sed -z 's/\n/\\n/g' | sed -z 's/\"/\\"/g')"
 curl --request POST \
     "https://projects.torsion.org/api/v1/repos/witten/borgmatic/releases?access_token=$projects_token" \
     --header "Accept: application/json" \