diff --git a/reviewboard/hostingsvcs/bitbucket.py b/reviewboard/hostingsvcs/bitbucket.py
index ca0fbb2718f2996119a91a6fd0a6ebbfedbce553..33a719165781e018b6487fc78cf0ff400f2d2242 100644
--- a/reviewboard/hostingsvcs/bitbucket.py
+++ b/reviewboard/hostingsvcs/bitbucket.py
@@ -730,10 +730,10 @@ class BitbucketClient(HostingServiceClient):
         super(BitbucketClient, self).process_http_error(request, e)
 
         if isinstance(e, HTTPError):
-            data = e.read()
+            data = e.read().decode('utf-8')
 
             try:
-                rsp = json.loads(data.decode('utf-8'))
+                rsp = json.loads(data)
             except Exception:
                 rsp = None