Brazil's freedom of information law under threat
Brazil鈥檚 long-awaited freedom of information law is once again under threat.
Senator and disgraced ex-President Fernando Collor, who was impeached in 1992 by the very Senate he now serves, has proposed radical revisions to the freedom of information bill 41/2010.
These changes constitute a clear affront to President Dilma Rousseff, who has supported passage of the measure, to the Chamber of Deputies, which approved the bill in 2010, and to the three Senate committees that have already endorsed the measure in 2011.
As Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations and National Defense, Mr. Collor holds a powerful position in the Senate. But the amendments proposed are so retrograde that Collor should hardly be taken seriously.
A freedom of information law is viewed to be one of the principal pillars of transparency and social accountability needed to better combat endemic corruption in Brazil.
Will the Senate cooperate with Rousseff?
Given Senator Collor鈥檚 intent, the freedom of information bill will almost certainly forfeit normal legislative procedure.
President Dilma Rousseff will have to work with Senate leader Jos茅 Sarney to either a) issue an 鈥渦rgency petition鈥� in order to force the bill out of committee, for an open floor vote, or b) pursue a floor vote that will ultimately approve the bill as it stood before Collor鈥檚 amendments.
If the Senator鈥檚 amendments are approved, the bill will likely go back to the Chamber of Deputies to expire. What stands in the way of a successful urgency petition is Senate leader Jos茅 Sarney, . Without the Senate leader鈥檚 cooperation, moving forward with the urgency petition may be impossible.
In light of , which have predominantly fallen on parties within Rousseff鈥檚 coalition (including Sarney鈥檚 PMDB), a strategy to delay or even amend the freedom of information law may be just the revenge that congressional allies have been looking for.
A defeat in the Senate would be an embarrassing step backwards for the Brazilian government, especially after , an international initiative whose very intent is openness and transparency.
The amendments proposed by Collor are numerous, but here are just a few highlights:
- Collor seeks to make all 鈥渦ltra secret information鈥� permanently secret (鈥渟igilo eterno鈥�) (Art. 24). This stands in contrast to better practice, whereby classification decisions are reviewed after the initial reserve period expires in order to determine whether the justification for secrecy still holds.
- Collor aims to re-define information so that primary documents are exempted, and only 鈥渇inished鈥� documents can be obtained by the public (Art. 4, 1; Art. 7).
- Collor wishes to eliminate the right to obtain information on the 鈥渁ctivities鈥� of public bodies, as well as their policies, organization, services (Art. 7, V); use of resources, procurement, and administrative contracts (Art. 7, VI).
- Collor believes the government should not be 鈥渙bliged鈥� to publish information on the internet, but that the 鈥減ossibility鈥� of publishing information should instead exist (Art. 8, 2; Art. 10 (2).
And the grand finale, the death sentence for any freedom of information law:
- Collor insists that public information requests must be justified (Art.10, 3).
--- Greg Michener, based in Rio de Janeiro, writes the blog, . He is currently writing a book on Freedom of Information in Latin America for Cambridge University Press.
