diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index d68d51ca5..40e37822c 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -61,6 +61,7 @@ ver 0.16 (20??/??/??)
 * removed options --create-db and --no-create-db
 * state_file: save only if something has changed
 * database: eliminated maximum line length
+* log: redirect stdout/stderr to /dev/null if syslog is used
 * obey $(sysconfdir) for default mpd.conf location
 * build with large file support by default
 * require GLib 2.16
diff --git a/src/log.c b/src/log.c
index 94691ab64..3a9795d7d 100644
--- a/src/log.c
+++ b/src/log.c
@@ -271,7 +271,10 @@ void setup_log_output(bool use_stdout)
 {
 	fflush(NULL);
 	if (!use_stdout) {
-		if (out_filename != NULL) {
+		if (out_filename == NULL)
+			out_fd = open("/dev/null", O_WRONLY);
+
+		if (out_fd >= 0) {
 			redirect_logs(out_fd);
 			close(out_fd);
 		}