 Welcome back to the breakfast. Press Freedom in Nigeria is under attack according to the Nigerian Guild of Editors. The Guild is working against the passage of two bills to amend the law establishing the Nigerian Press Council and the National Broadcasting Commission. It says the provisions of the bill sponsored by a member of the House of Representatives are draconian. This morning we're going to be quickly getting a position of the Nigerian Union of Journalist from the President, Mr. Chris Isuguzo. Good morning. Thanks for joining us, sir. Good morning. Good to see you this morning. Quickly, let's get your response to the bills. There's been a lot of criticism for the establishment of the NPC and of course the amendment of the NBC Act. What's the response of the NUJ? One has been the same, very clear and ambiguous from the outset. We are at the public hearing some time ago and we made our stand known to those who are sponsoring the so-called bill, which seeks to regulate the Nigerian Press Council and of course that would amend existing Act establishing the Council. For us in the NUJ we feel that that bill is of notions, is anti-people, is against free press, it is intended to gag free speech and it is unacceptable to us. We have asked those behind it so quickly we draw it in the interest of democracy and I'm happy that last week the Presidency through the Special Advisor to Mr. President of Media and Publicity, Femi-Additional. I washed the hands of the bill and of course blamed the Minister of Information for being behind it and last week we also issued a statement asking the President to go a step further. It is not just enough to say that you don't know about the bill, you are not behind the bill. The government should go a step further by calling the Honorable Minister of Information to other because we believe it is the same administration, it is the same government and if the leader of the government says he is not behind it, I wonder what other members of the government should be doing with the bill. That is one. Number two, we also found that before you come up with a bill of that nature, which of course would ultimately make impact on the practitioners. You must engage the stakeholders. You cannot be talking about such bill and the Nigerian of journalists is not part of the discussion, at the discussion table. The Nigerian Guild of Editors were not part of it at the discussion table. The leadership and members of the newspaper proprietors association of Nigeria, NPA, are not part of it. Then what deal are you talking about? So we've asked them to quickly do the needful. As we speak anyway, the Nigerian press organization, MTO, made up of the AUJ, the Guild and the NBN. We have scheduled a very crucial meeting to look at this whole thing and we intend to come up with a statement which all the leaders of these groups will endorse and that will be our official position on this draconian bill. So beyond the intention to dialogue and to put out a statement, what other actions can the media take regarding this? Is it possible to seek redress in courts? Can they write positions against this? Is there any intention to go the legal route to make sure that this doesn't see the light of day? Because we see that part of the spec stipulations in this act is that journalists can be jailed for up to three years or be fined for 10 million nara if they breach some of these new rules. So what really are the actions that the media plans to take against this bill? Well, this is democracy and the things are done procedurally. The first we have registered our opposition to the bill, we also intend to come up with a central position of the stakeholders which will be made public and it will be also submitted to the House of Representatives Committee on Information. So that's your position. We really apologise for the quality of that audio there but here's where we'll be We apologise, we can't continue that conversation, we really lost you there but hopefully we continue to talk about this. Let's see what steps the media in Nigeria want to take. He's talked about writing statements, dialogue in, so should we be looking at legal redressing courts? Is there a possibility of these media associations going on strikes or protests? What really is the media going to do about these rules that have been described as draconian? Thank you very much for coming on the breakfast this morning and here's where we draw the curtains once again. My name is Anneta Felix and it's been The Breakfast on PLOS TV. And I am Osauge Ogboa, remember to join us on our social media platforms, Facebook and Instagram at PLOS TV Africa, same with your YouTube channel. I am Osauge Ogboa, see you.