diff --git a/xtrn/DDMsgReader/DDMsgReader.js b/xtrn/DDMsgReader/DDMsgReader.js
index c1ae2bc670e053c8365baf33893a159d269b80f1..05c216c380946a87afee26cd64e1e7dab68ec6e3 100644
--- a/xtrn/DDMsgReader/DDMsgReader.js
+++ b/xtrn/DDMsgReader/DDMsgReader.js
@@ -4414,7 +4414,8 @@ function DigDistMsgReader_CreateLightbarMsgListMenu()
 			// When setting the item text, call PrintMessageInfo with true as
 			// the last parameter to return the string instead
 			menuItemObj.text = strip_ctrl(this.msgReader.PrintMessageInfo(msgHdr, false, itemIdx+1, true));
-			menuItemObj.textIsUTF8 = (msgHdr.hasOwnProperty("is_utf8") && msgHdr.is_utf8) || str_is_utf8(msgHdr.subject);
+			var subjUTF8 = str_is_utf8(msgHdr.subject) && !str_is_ascii(msgHdr.subject);
+			menuItemObj.textIsUTF8 = (msgHdr.hasOwnProperty("is_utf8") && msgHdr.is_utf8) || subjUTF8;
 			menuItemObj.retval = msgHdr.number;
 			var msgIsToUser = userHandleAliasNameMatch(msgHdr.to);
 			var msgIsFromUser = userHandleAliasNameMatch(msgHdr.from);