The Access to Information Law (LAI) completed 11 years of existence this Tuesday (16). In the evaluation of the president of the National Federation of Journalists (Fenaj), Samira de Castro, the LAI was an important milestone, especially for journalists, whose mission is to work with information of public interest. “But we know that we face great challenges, because the law allows for some interpretations at the whim of governments at the time, such as the secrecy that it allows to establish and that are misrepresented by many public managers”, said Samira to Agência Brasil. Decrees signed this Tuesday by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, improving the public transparency system, reinforce the public entity’s commitment to transparency and access to information that is of interest to society as a whole. change of government, “which not only respects the institutional roles of those who work with information of public interest, but also the roles of the government as a public entity that can be inspected.” Law 12,527/2011 Enacted on November 18, 2011 2011, Law 12,527 regulates citizens’ constitutional right of access to public information and is applicable to the three powers of the Union, states, Federal District and municipalities. The LAI represents an important step towards the consolidation of the Brazilian democratic regime and the strengthening of public transparency policies. Access to public information is the rule, secrecy being the exception. To guarantee the full exercise of the right of access provided for in the Federal Constitution, the LAI defines the mechanisms, deadlines and procedures for the delivery of information requested by the public administration to the public. Law 12,527 determines that public bodies and entities must disclose a minimum list of information via the internet. Requests for access to information can be sent through the Electronic System of the Citizen Information Service (e-SIC). Importance In the assessment made to Agência Brasil by labor judge Marcelo Segal, professor of Law at IBMEC, the LAI is a very important law because any citizen can request information from the Public Power, which has the obligation to provide the requested information. “It is a way of exercising citizenship as well. It gives more transparency for attitudes, even for expenses as well, and many people use this law to ask for certain information”. For Segal, the LAI “provides greater transparency, strengthens democracy and allows citizens to have access to the information they want”. The LAI also determines deadlines for requests to be answered. “Before the LAI, people asked for information and, simply, they didn’t have it and nothing happened”, concluded the judge. Professor at the Getulio Vargas Law Foundation (FGV Law) and constitutional law lawyer, Alvaro Jorge, pointed out that, in fact, what the LAI did was regulate a right already provided for in the 1988 Constitution in its Article 5. “Access to information has this primordial constitutional function and serves, precisely, to help in the exercise of State control”. Alvaro Jorge explained to Agência Brasil that in addition to reinforcing that citizens have the right to information, the LAI also creates the process for obtaining it. The law determined that, in the spheres of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary, in addition to the audit courts and other bodies, a process should be created where people could request access to information and appeal in case the information was denied. “On the other hand, it protected the possibility of classification of secrecy of certain information that is considered sensitive. It was an important advance if you look at how many journalistic articles start from a request for information. That alone demonstrates that it works in practice in association: freedom of the press plus freedom of information generate positive control by the State. It is a very important constitutional right.”
Agência Brasil
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