To avoid defeat, Bolsonaro revokes decree on secrecy law.
President Jair Bolsonaro revoked a decree signed in late January by then-acting president Hamilton Mourão that delegated the decision on data secrecy to appointed officials; the decision comes a week after the Chamber of Deputies dealt a blow to the government by suspending part of the decree; the matter would still have to pass through the Senate, but was ultimately revoked for fear of the government suffering another defeat less than two months after taking office.
Reuters - President Jair Bolsonaro revoked on Tuesday night a decree signed in late January by then-acting president Hamilton Mourão that delegated to appointed officials the power to decide on data confidentiality.
In a decree released Tuesday night and published in Wednesday's edition of the Official Gazette of the Union, Bolsonaro revoked the measure that changed the rules for classifying information as secret and top secret, allowing appointed officials, heads of autonomous agencies and public companies, among others, to determine the secrecy of data.
Last week, the decree, which altered the regulations of the Access to Information Law (LAI), suffered a defeat in the Chamber of Deputies when parliamentarians approved the suspension of part of the decree, signed by Mourão when he was acting as President, because Bolsonaro was hospitalized to undergo surgery.
The suspension of the decree would still have to be approved by the Senate.
By Eduardo Simões, in São Paulo