Information is a public good, owed by the citizens, and not by bureaucracy
 Federal government should send to Congress, by end of April, a bill regulating the access to public information. The announcement was made on Wednesday (1) by the Chief-Minister of the Civilian Household, Dilma Rousseff, at the opening of the International Seminar on the Right to Access to Public Information. The presidents of the Chamber, Michel Temer, and of the Supreme Court, Gilmar Mendes, and the ambassador Vicent Defourny, the representative of Unesco, also participated in the event.

Term for confidentiality
The minister explained that the bill will have two basic principles: the documents regarding violations of human rights will not have any access restriction and any form of confidentiality at all; the confidential information and that regarding the private life, the honor and the image of the citizens will be preserved. The bill establishes that even confidential information will have an established term, after which its confidentiality will be automatically waived.

The bill should also provide for the penalization of public agents who deny or hamper access to the information required by the citizens. In order to render law effective, Dilma Rousseff explained that the qualification of civil servants is also provided for. The government’s proposal will also limit the amount of people entitled to decree data confidentiality.

According to the minister, the idea is that the population gets free and immediate access to information.

Constitutional right
The President of the Chamber, Michel Temer, affirmed in his speech at the event that the Legislative Power is ready to work on the necessary legislation, so that the population has the broadest access to quality information. “That is a right guaranteed by the Constitution, and the Legislative Power has the obligation to enforce it, since it is the easiest way for the population to access Public Power”, he said.

Temer and Gilmar Mendes reminded that the right to information, established by the Constitution, already provides for exceptions in situations threatening the safety of society or of the state. But, even in those cases, they believe confidentiality should have a determined term.

Cooperation
The representative of UNESCO affirmed that the institution has the highest interest in collaborating in the debate on the regulation of access to information, and also said that that debate should involve all society. He explained that that right is provided for in the founding document of that institution, which is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Defourny explained that the popular participation in the debate is indispensable, since it is necessary to promote a cultural change to render the right to information effective. He explained that it is necessary to understand that information is a public good, owed by the citizen, and not by bureaucracy.

He affirmed that regulation should establish, as a principle, that the unlimited access to information be the rule, and clearly define the exceptions. He warned that it is necessary to clarify that information is different from data. The representative of UNESCO explained that the simple access to a set of data can, in some cases, confuse the citizens, instead of informing them.

The seminar, promoted by the Fórum Direito de Acesso a Informações Públicas (Forum on the Right to Access to Public Information), in partnership with the Chamber, the Senate and other communication bodies, continues on this Thursday, at the Senate Interlegis’ auditorium.

Report - Vania Alves
Editing - Paulo Cesar Santos/Rejane Xavier
Translation - Positive Idiomas Ltda