diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 9bb2a20fcf..26689c04b2 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,8 @@
+2007-06-14  Edward Hervey  <edward@fluendo.com>
+
+	* gst/__init__.py:
+	Cleaner way of checking for existence of symbols in gst module.
+
 2007-06-14  Jan Schmidt  <thaytan@mad.scientist.com>
 
 	* examples/sinkelement-registry.py:
diff --git a/gst/__init__.py b/gst/__init__.py
index 91a8ded6da..1c2d015b01 100644
--- a/gst/__init__.py
+++ b/gst/__init__.py
@@ -157,13 +157,13 @@ del sys
 # See #446674
 
 import warnings
-if "parse_bin_from_description" in _gst.__dict__:
+if locals().has_key("parse_bin_from_description"):
     def gst_parse_bin_from_description(*args, **kwargs):
         warnings.warn("gst_parse_bin_from_description() is deprecated, please use parse_bin_from_description instead",
                       DeprecationWarning)
         return parse_bin_from_description(*args, **kwargs)
 
-if "message_new_buffering" in _gst.__dict__:
+if locals().has_key("message_new_buffering"):
     def gst_message_new_buffering(*args, **kwargs):
         warnings.warn("gst_message_new_buffering() is deprecated, please use message_new_buffering() instead",
                       DeprecationWarning)