diff --git a/tools/conlluAddMissingColumns.py b/tools/conlluAddMissingColumns.py
index 0104b4c52d5218b1a9043fb05eada4aae12cb5b3..ba05998f4c9bdc54fac48deddd40b92a5a1b562a 100755
--- a/tools/conlluAddMissingColumns.py
+++ b/tools/conlluAddMissingColumns.py
@@ -1,9 +1,6 @@
 #! /usr/bin/python3
 
 import sys
-import codecs
-sys.stdout = codecs.getwriter('utf8')(sys.stdout)
-sys.stderr = codecs.getwriter('utf8')(sys.stderr)
 
 def printUsageAndExit() :
   print("USAGE : %s file.conllu mcd"%sys.argv[0], file=sys.stderr)
@@ -24,6 +21,9 @@ def readMCD(mcdFilename) :
   return mcd
 
 if __name__ == "__main__" :
+
+  sys.stdout = open(1, 'w', encoding='utf-8', closefd=False)
+
   if len(sys.argv) != 3 :
     printUsageAndExit()