diff --git a/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.c b/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.c
index a88bee299a..69152bc26f 100644
--- a/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.c
+++ b/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.c
@@ -78,9 +78,9 @@
 
 #include "gstvideoscale.h"
 
-/* debug variable definition */
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY (video_scale_debug);
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_STATIC (GST_CAT_PERFORMANCE);
+#define GST_CAT_DEFAULT video_scale_debug
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_STATIC (video_scale_debug);
+GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (GST_CAT_PERFORMANCE);
 
 #define DEFAULT_PROP_METHOD       GST_VIDEO_SCALE_BILINEAR
 #define DEFAULT_PROP_ADD_BORDERS  TRUE
diff --git a/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.h b/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.h
index 297ceed85b..c16f816aba 100644
--- a/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.h
+++ b/gst/videoscale/gstvideoscale.h
@@ -26,9 +26,6 @@
 
 G_BEGIN_DECLS
 
-GST_DEBUG_CATEGORY_EXTERN (video_scale_debug);
-#define GST_CAT_DEFAULT video_scale_debug
-
 #define GST_TYPE_VIDEO_SCALE \
   (gst_video_scale_get_type())
 #define GST_VIDEO_SCALE(obj) \