Draft:Lei de Acesso à Informação
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lei de Acesso à Informação (lit. 'Information Access Law'; LAI)[a] is a federal law in Brazil establishing standards for government transparency.
| Lei de Acesso à Informação | |
|---|---|
| Chamber of Deputies | |
| |
| Territorial extent | Brazil |
| Passed by | Chamber of Deputies |
| Passed | 14 April 2010 |
| Passed by | Federal Senate |
| Passed | 25 October 2011 |
| Signed by | Dilma Rousseff |
| Signed | 18 November 2011 |
| Effective | 16 May 2012 |
| Legislative history | |
| Initiating chamber: Chamber of Deputies | |
| Bill title | Projeto de Lei Nº 219, de 2003 |
| Bill citation | PL 219/2003 |
| Introduced by | Reginaldo Lopes (PT/MG) |
| Introduced | 26 February 2003 |
| Related legislation | |
| PL 5228/2009 (appended) | |
| Keywords | |
| Status: Current legislation | |
Background
The Constitution of Brazil has several passages guaranteeing the right of citizens to access public and government information. Explicitly mentioned in the Information Access Law's long title as motivating excerpts are article 5th (XXXIII), art. 37 (§ 3rd, II) and art. 216 (§ 2nd).[b]
As such, the Information Access Law guarantees unrestricted access to citizens or companies to information pertaining to governmental entities, be it on the federal, state or municipal levels.[1] No justification is required to open a request for information; on the other hand, if the entity from whom data is being requested denies it, it must provide a justification for its refusal, which can be appealed on multiple instances.[1]
The only restrictions to information access are for classified, personal or sensitive data, such as ongoing investigations, judicial cases, or those that may threaten the safety of the nation.[1] Governmental entities had a deadline of 2 years to reevaluate if their classified documents required that level of protection; otherwise, after the deadline, they'd automatically be declassified.[2]
https://www12.senado.leg.br/noticias/materias/2015/05/15/entenda-a-lei-de-acesso-a-informacao
https://www.gov.br/acessoainformacao/pt-br/assuntos/pedidos
https://www.gov.br/acessoainformacao/pt-br/assuntos/conheca-seu-direito
Success stories
Information Access requests by Folha de S.Paulo in 2011 were integral to exposing Brazil's funding of the military dictatorship of Chile during Brazil's own military dictatorship, through telegrams sent and received by Brazilian diplomats between 1973 and 1976.[3][4]
In 2015, Folha also used Information Access requests to bring to light alleged misuse of official state aircraft by Aécio Neves and Antonio Anastasia during their tenures as governors of Minas Gerais, from 2003 through 2014.[5][4] In total, there were almost 1.500 flights between the two of them, hundreds of which neither the governors nor any public officials were present for, used to transport politicians and celebrities.[5] The list of beneficiaries includes television presenter Luciano Huck, pop music duo Sandy & Junior and former president of the Brazilian Football Confederation, Ricardo Teixeira.[5] In 2019, a Minas Gerais court ruled Aécio must pay R$ 11.5 million (approx. US$ 3.2 million) back,[6] but that decision was reverted a couple of months later with the argument that the letter of the law didn't explicitely prohibit the actions; consequently, intentionality wasn't demonstrated, and without intentionality the action had prescribed.[7]
In June 2016, a series of reports by O Globo made use of the Information Access Law to correlate dates of refusals by the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) to provide air transport for organ transplants with travels using FAB aircraft by political figures in the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of government.[8] In the three years analyzed by the report, from 2013 through 2015, the author found 153 refusals for organ transplants on the same days as 716 fulfilled requests to politicians; the latter had zero registered refusals in the system, while refusals for the former had grown from 53% to 78% in the period.[8] A 2002 decree had required the FAB transport politicians, but no such requirement had been made for organs.[9] Following the report, acting president Michel Temer signed a decree mandating the FAB keep at least one aircraft available at all times to transport organs to receivers, or vice versa.[9]
During the 2018 Brazilian general election, Folha further used the law to show that the ex-wife of presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro had fled the country with their son in 2009, claiming to have received death threats from Bolsonaro in a dispute for child custody.[10]
In December 2023, The Intercept released an article on over a hundred intelligence reports that were unclassified after 25 years of being produced, as stipulated by the Information Access Law. Written during Fernando Henrique Cardoso (FHC)'s first tenure as President of Brazil, from 1995 through 1999, the reports reveal that the Federal Government spied on the Landless Workers' Movement (MST), a group formed at the end of the military dictatorship to advocate for land reform.[11] FHC had also spied on one of the national coordinators of the movement, João Pedro Stédile, and on multiple internal factions of the Workers' Party.[11]
"Issues" or similar
"Threats" or similar
https://blogs.oglobo.globo.com/opiniao/post/ameacas-lei-de-acesso-informacao.html
https://g1.globo.com/podcast/o-assunto/noticia/2022/12/13/nao-existe-sigilo-de-cem-anos-especialista-explica-como-medida-da-lei-de-acesso-a-informacao-foi-deturpada-no-governo-bolsonaro.ghtml "A medida [de 2019] acabou derrubada na Câmara. Quinze meses depois, coube ao STF barrar a tentativa .. de ignorar os prazos .. durante a pandemia"
https://www.jota.info/opiniao-e-analise/artigos/lei-de-acesso-a-informacao-10-anos-o-que-mudou
Misc
See also
- Freedom of Information Act (United States)
- Freedom of Information Act (United Kingdom)
Notes
- Officially Lei Nº 12.527, de 18 de Novembro de 2011 ("Law #12,527 of 18 November 2011")
- Art. 5º Todos são iguais perante a lei, sem distinção de qualquer natureza, garantindo-se aos brasileiros e aos estrangeiros residentes no País a inviolabilidade do direito à vida, à liberdade, à igualdade, à segurança e à propriedade, nos termos seguintes:
- XXXIII: todos têm direito a receber dos órgãos públicos informações de seu interesse particular, ou de interesse coletivo ou geral, que serão prestadas no prazo da lei, sob pena de responsabilidade, ressalvadas aquelas cujo sigilo seja imprescindível à segurança da sociedade e do Estado;
- § 3º A lei disciplinará as formas de participação do usuário na administração pública direta e indireta, regulando especialmente:
- II - o acesso dos usuários a registros administrativos e a informações sobre atos de governo, observado o disposto no art. 5º, X e XXXIII;
- § 2º Cabem à administração pública, na forma da lei, a gestão da documentação governamental e as providências para franquear sua consulta a quantos dela necessitem.
Art. 5th All people are equal before the law, without any distinction whatsoever. Brazilians and foreigners residing in the country are ensured the inviolability of their right to life, liberty, equality, security, and property, under the following terms:- XXXIII: all people are entitled to receive information concerning their private, collective or general interest from government bodies, which shall be provided within the period established by law, under penalty of liability, except for those information whose secrecy is essential to the security of society and of the State;
- § 3º The law shall regulate the forms of user participation in the government bodies and associated entities, regarding especially:
- II - user access to administrative records and to information about government initiatives, with due regard for Article 5, items X and XXXIII;
- § 2º The administration is responsible for managing governmental documents and providing measures to ensure they are available for consultation to whomever may need access to them.