def _saferepr(obj):
    """Get a safe repr of an object for assertion error messages.

    The assertion formatting (util.format_explanation()) requires
    newlines to be escaped since they are a special character for it.
    Normally assertion.util.format_explanation() does this but for a
    custom repr it is possible to contain one of the special escape
    sequences, especially '\n{' and '\n}' are likely to be present in
    JSON reprs.

    """
    repr = py.io.saferepr(obj)
    if py.builtin._istext(repr):
        t = py.builtin.text
    else:
        t = py.builtin.bytes
    return repr.replace(t("\n"), t("\\n"))