diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 9be5f4c6ae..fe04ed9775 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ Copyright (C) 2010 Splitted-Desktop Systems
 
 Version 0.2.2 - DD.May.2010
 * Fix packaging dependencies
+* Fix a crash in the FFmpeg decoder on close
 * Fix OpenGL texture internal format (Clutter)
 * Fix foreign window size for embedding (Totem)
 
diff --git a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_ffmpeg.c b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_ffmpeg.c
index a866390c05..d7ec1aee38 100644
--- a/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_ffmpeg.c
+++ b/gst-libs/gst/vaapi/gstvaapidecoder_ffmpeg.c
@@ -295,7 +295,8 @@ gst_vaapi_decoder_ffmpeg_close(GstVaapiDecoderFfmpeg *ffdecoder)
     GstVaapiDecoderFfmpegPrivate * const priv = ffdecoder->priv;
 
     if (priv->avctx) {
-        avcodec_close(priv->avctx);
+        if (priv->is_opened)
+            avcodec_close(priv->avctx);
         av_freep(&priv->avctx->extradata);
         priv->avctx->extradata_size = 0;
     }