diff --git a/gitlab.py b/gitlab.py
index a64fdcada..90b33024d 100644
--- a/gitlab.py
+++ b/gitlab.py
@@ -574,7 +574,11 @@ def _obj_to_str(obj):
             s = ", ".join([GitlabObject._obj_to_str(x) for x in obj])
             return "[ %s ]" % s
         elif isinstance(obj, unicode):
-            return obj.encode(sys.stdout.encoding, "replace")
+            if sys.stdout.encoding is None:
+                return obj.encode(sys.getdefaultencoding(), "replace")
+            else:
+                return obj.encode(sys.stdout.encoding, "replace")
+
         else:
             return str(obj)
 
@@ -585,8 +589,14 @@ def pretty_print(self, depth=0):
             if k == self.idAttr:
                 continue
             v = self.__dict__[k]
-            pretty_k = k.replace('_', '-').encode(sys.stdout.encoding,
-                                                  "replace")
+           
+            if sys.stdout.encoding is None:
+                pretty_k = k.replace('_','-').encode(sys.getdefaultencoding(),
+                                                     "replace")
+            else:
+                pretty_k = k.replace('_', '-').encode(sys.stdout.encoding,
+                                                      "replace")
+
             if isinstance(v, GitlabObject):
                 if depth == 0:
                     print("%s:" % pretty_k)