diff --git a/app/core/gimpchannel.c b/app/core/gimpchannel.c
index a9b7546809..784551a242 100644
--- a/app/core/gimpchannel.c
+++ b/app/core/gimpchannel.c
@@ -1824,7 +1824,7 @@ gimp_channel_boundary (GimpChannel         *channel,
 gboolean
 gimp_channel_is_empty (GimpChannel *channel)
 {
-  g_return_val_if_fail (GIMP_IS_CHANNEL (channel), FALSE);
+  g_return_val_if_fail (GIMP_IS_CHANNEL (channel), TRUE);
 
   return GIMP_CHANNEL_GET_CLASS (channel)->is_empty (channel);
 }