Mourão's decree is part of the war against the press.

By Alex Solnik, for the Journalists for Democracy - In law, it is unacceptable for a decree to change the spirit of a law. The decree signed by Vice President Hamilton Mourão and drafted by Justice Minister Sérgio Moro destroys the main foundation of the Access to Information Law of 2011, which is that the secrecy of information about the government should be the exception.

The Moro-Mourão decree makes secrecy almost a rule by increasing to more than 260 the previously restricted number of civil servants who can classify information or documents relating to the government as secret and top secret.

And thus prevent them from being broadcast on TV and in newspapers, respectively, for 15 and 25 years, renewable for another 25.

The decree is clearly part of the government's war against the press. Just yesterday, Bolsonaro asked an incredulous reporter from the Washington Post if she still believed what was published in the "print media."

When faced with the pressure of deciding whether or not to prohibit certain information or documents, employees will tend to prohibit them, to avoid reprimands from their superiors later. They don't want to hear the famous "who allowed that to be published?!" from a certain office in the Presidential Palace.

The decree is, therefore, a defensive move by the government, attempting to protect itself from future scandals, and also a carte blanche for prior censorship, prohibited by a fundamental clause of the federal constitution. Unconstitutional, therefore.

And it must be repudiated – as it is being – by all entities that defend freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and government transparency.

The fate of the decree should be the same as that reserved by Minister Marco Aurélio Mello for Minister Fux's decision to suspend the investigation concerning Flávio Bolsonaro: the dustbin of history.