diff --git a/utils/apparmor/fail.py b/utils/apparmor/fail.py
index 19e4491d6..5e5cb50ec 100644
--- a/utils/apparmor/fail.py
+++ b/utils/apparmor/fail.py
@@ -8,12 +8,16 @@
 #
 # ------------------------------------------------------------------
 
+from __future__ import print_function  # needed in py2 for print('...', file=sys.stderr)
+
 import cgitb
 import os
 import sys
 import tempfile
 import traceback
 
+from apparmor.common import error
+
 #
 # Exception handling
 #
@@ -27,8 +31,8 @@ def handle_exception(*exc_info):
     (ex_cls, ex, tb) = exc_info
 
     if ex_cls.__name__  == 'AppArmorException':  # I didn't find a way to get this working with isinstance() :-/
-        print('')
-        print(ex.value)
+        print('', file=sys.stderr)
+        error(ex.value)
     else:
         (fd, path) = tempfile.mkstemp(prefix='apparmor-bugreport-', suffix='.txt')
         file = os.fdopen(fd, 'w')
@@ -40,13 +44,13 @@ def handle_exception(*exc_info):
         file.write('Please consider reporting a bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/apparmor/\n')
         file.write('and attach this file.\n')
 
-        print(''.join(traceback.format_exception(*exc_info)))
-        print('')
-        print('An unexpected error occoured!')
-        print('')
-        print('For details, see %s' % path)
-        print('Please consider reporting a bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/apparmor/')
-        print('and attach this file.')
+        print(''.join(traceback.format_exception(*exc_info)), file=sys.stderr)
+        print('', file=sys.stderr)
+        print('An unexpected error occoured!', file=sys.stderr)
+        print('', file=sys.stderr)
+        print('For details, see %s' % path, file=sys.stderr)
+        print('Please consider reporting a bug at https://bugs.launchpad.net/apparmor/', file=sys.stderr)
+        print('and attach this file.', file=sys.stderr)
 
 def enable_aa_exception_handler():
     '''Setup handle_exception() as exception handler'''