diff -r 0d2c364c7e5d Lib/test/test_io.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_io.py	Sat Apr 13 20:12:53 2013 +0300
+++ b/Lib/test/test_io.py	Sat Apr 13 19:02:50 2013 -0400
@@ -1388,6 +1388,11 @@
 
 class BufferedRWPairTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
+    def test_new(self):
+        pair = self.tp.__new__(self.tp)
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, pair.read)
+        self.assertRaises(Exception, pair.write)
+
     def test_constructor(self):
         pair = self.tp(self.MockRawIO(), self.MockRawIO())
         self.assertFalse(pair.closed)
diff -r 0d2c364c7e5d Modules/_io/bufferedio.c
--- a/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c	Sat Apr 13 20:12:53 2013 +0300
+++ b/Modules/_io/bufferedio.c	Sat Apr 13 19:02:50 2013 -0400
@@ -2263,9 +2263,14 @@
 static PyObject *
 _forward_call(buffered *self, _Py_Identifier *name, PyObject *args)
 {
-    PyObject *func = _PyObject_GetAttrId((PyObject *)self, name);
-    PyObject *ret;
+    PyObject *func, *ret;
+    if (self == NULL) {
+        PyErr_SetString(PyExc_RuntimeError,
+                "the BufferedRWPair has not been initialized");
+        return NULL;
+    }
 
+    func = _PyObject_GetAttrId((PyObject *)self, name);
     if (func == NULL) {
         PyErr_SetString(PyExc_AttributeError, name->string);
         return NULL;