The Access to Information Law comes into effect.

Agência Brasil - The Access to Information Law comes into force today (16) with the aim of guaranteeing Brazilian citizens access to official data from the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches. Each public body will have a Citizen Information Service (SIC) to guarantee the transparency of public data. With this, Brazil joins, with 91 other countries, the group of nations that recognize that information held by the State is a public good. In addition to financial expenditures and contracts, the law guarantees the monitoring of general data on programs, actions, projects and works. The links on the federal government pages that give citizens full access to the information are identified by a seal in the form of a yellow speech bubble, with the letter "i" in green.

In addition to public bodies and entities at all three levels of government, municipalities, foundations, public companies, and private non-profit organizations that receive public funds must make the information available to citizens free of charge.

Previously, citizens could only request information that concerned them. It was up to the heads of the agencies to decide on the release of the data. According to the booklet from the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), created to inform civil servants about the new law, in the so-called "culture of secrecy," information was often withheld or even lost.

With this law, citizens can request information without needing to provide justification. According to the CGU (Brazilian Comptroller General's Office), clear rules and procedures are established for information management. Furthermore, civil servants are being trained to implement the access to information policy. A specific form has been created for the request, which can be filled out directly at the agency or online. To access the information, the citizen must identify themselves and specify their request.

One of the obstacles to implementing the new rules for access to information is the regulation of the law, which has not yet been completed. According to the Minister of the Comptroller General's Office (CGU), Jorge Hage, the regulation is lacking for the guidance that the agency should give to the ministries. According to him, the CGU, which is responsible for implementing the law, receives questions that depend on the regulation to be answered.

The new law also puts an end to the perpetual secrecy of official documents. Under the new rule, the maximum secrecy period has been limited to 25 years for top-secret documents, 15 years for secret documents, and five years for restricted documents. Top-secret documents may have their secrecy period renewed only once.

A public servant who refuses to provide requested information, intentionally provides it incorrectly, incompletely, or inaccurately, or who imposes secrecy on information to obtain personal gain or gain for a third party may be held liable civilly, criminally, or administratively.