diff --git a/bin/reportbug b/bin/reportbug
index d4eeec4..04a614c 100755
--- a/bin/reportbug
+++ b/bin/reportbug
@@ -1733,7 +1733,7 @@ For more details, please see: http://www.debian.org/devel/wnpp/''')
             files = confinfo.keys()
             files.sort()
             for f in files:
-                conftext = conftext + u'%s %s\n' % (f, confinfo[f])
+                conftext = conftext + u'%s %s\n' % (f, confinfo[f].encode('utf-8'))
 
         if (self.options.debconf and os.path.exists('/usr/bin/debconf-show') and
             not self.options.kudos and installed):