Against the expectations of Brazil's President Dilma Roussef, the proposed information access law will not be approved Tuesday, May 3, World Press Freedom Day, as originally anticipated. Former president Fernando Collor de Mello, who was impeached in 1992 and is a current senator for the center-right Brazilian Labor Party (PTB), halted the information access bill, reported Folha de S. Paulo.
The bill, already approved by the Chamber of Deputies and two Senate committees, arrived on Monday, April 25, at the Commission of Foreign relations, over which Collor presides. After a week, and despite parliamentary pressure, the senator managed to remove the bill from the commission's agenda.
As a result, now the bill can be voted on only during a deliberative session of the commission on Thursday, May 5, and only if the government and Collor can reach an agreement.
According to Folha, the President could bring the proposal directly to the floor, but she does not want to alienate Collor, who is a political ally. Once approved by the Senate and president, the law would go into effect 180 days later.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
