diff --git a/src/journal/journald-stream.c b/src/journal/journald-stream.c
index fb800782fb6..4e8bcd822d9 100644
--- a/src/journal/journald-stream.c
+++ b/src/journal/journald-stream.c
@@ -239,14 +239,14 @@ static int stdout_stream_log(StdoutStream *s, const char *p) {
         assert(s);
         assert(p);
 
-        if (isempty(p))
-                return 0;
-
         priority = s->priority;
 
         if (s->level_prefix)
                 syslog_parse_priority(&p, &priority, false);
 
+        if (isempty(p))
+                return 0;
+
         if (s->forward_to_syslog || s->server->forward_to_syslog)
                 server_forward_syslog(s->server, syslog_fixup_facility(priority), s->identifier, p, &s->ucred, NULL);