diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 34445ad9cf..bb718737b1 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -77,6 +77,7 @@
 
 * [8988](https://github.com/grafana/loki/pull/8988) **darxriggs**: Promtail: Prevent logging errors on normal shutdown.
 * [9155](https://github.com/grafana/loki/pull/9155) **farodin91**: Promtail: Break on iterate journal failure.
+* [8987](https://github.com/grafana/loki/pull/8987) **darxriggs**: Promtail: Fix file descriptor leak.
 
 #### LogCLI
 
diff --git a/clients/pkg/promtail/targets/journal/journaltarget.go b/clients/pkg/promtail/targets/journal/journaltarget.go
index 02bceaf535..6630b827e7 100644
--- a/clients/pkg/promtail/targets/journal/journaltarget.go
+++ b/clients/pkg/promtail/targets/journal/journaltarget.go
@@ -56,21 +56,25 @@ var defaultJournalReaderFunc = func(c sdjournal.JournalReaderConfig) (journalRea
 	return sdjournal.NewJournalReader(c)
 }
 
-var defaultJournalEntryFunc = func(c sdjournal.JournalReaderConfig, cursor string) (*sdjournal.JournalEntry, error) {
-	var (
-		journal *sdjournal.Journal
-		err     error
-	)
+var defaultJournalEntryFunc = func(c sdjournal.JournalReaderConfig, cursor string) (entry *sdjournal.JournalEntry, err error) {
+	var journal *sdjournal.Journal
 
 	if c.Path != "" {
 		journal, err = sdjournal.NewJournalFromDir(c.Path)
 	} else {
 		journal, err = sdjournal.NewJournal()
 	}
-
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
-	} else if err := journal.SeekCursor(cursor); err != nil {
+	}
+	defer func() {
+		if errClose := journal.Close(); err == nil {
+			err = errClose
+		}
+	}()
+
+	err = journal.SeekCursor(cursor)
+	if err != nil {
 		return nil, err
 	}