After asserting in August that "ultra secret" government documents should stay secret in perpetuity, former Brazilian president and current senator, Fernando Collor de Melo, along with another ex-president and current president of the Senate, José Sarney, executed a "maneuver" to slow the vote on an information access bill in the Congress, reported Estado de São Paulo.
Opponents of the bill's language approved in 2010 by the Chamber of Deputies, which guarantees the public staggered access to all government documents, intended to slow the vote in the Senate despite having no public or political support to do so, noted O Globo.
This time Collor submitted a request for information through Sarney asking the Institutional Security Cabinet of the Presidency (GSI in Portuguese) for further details about the secret documents in this series, explained Folha de São Paulo.
The bill can only progress in the Senate once GSI's response is received. In May, the government requested urgency in the bill's passage because of Collor's attempts to delay its vote in the Senate.
On Sept. 20, Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff will meet with President Barack Obama in New York to take part in the multilateral "Open Government Partnership." The initiative aims to promote greater government transparency.
The Brazilian Constitution establishes the right to information but the South American country lacks any laws governing the issue, said journalist Fernando Rodrigues in his blog.
For more information about information access legislation in Latin America, check out this map from the Knight Center.
Other Related Headlines:
» Centro Knight (Periodista Fernando Rodrigues habla sobre la larga odisea por una ley de acceso a la información en Brasil)
» Centro Knight (¿Por qué la prensa brasileña no cubre el proyecto de ley de acceso a la información?)
» Artículo 19 (en portugués) (Manifiesto por el derecho a la información pública)
