ARTICLE 19 Brazil & South America has launched a new report entitled The Access to Information Law in Brazilian Courts, which looks at how certain courts in the country have interpreted the Access to Information Law (AIL) in recent cases.
From an analysis of 250 judicial decisions from five courts issued between May 2012, when AIL came into force, and February of this year, it is clear that the vast majority of decisions (77%) were in favour for the access to information
The report also provides an analysis of the profile of those filing the lawsuits, the nature of the public agencies towards which the requests for information were directed, the lawsuits in which the requests for information were successful, and the reasons why the lawsuits were brought.
The report finds that the text of the court decisions, for the most part, did not provide a satisfactory discussion of the public interest aspect of the cases involving the right to information. All of the decisions, positive or negative, should provide a greater emphasis on the public facing dimension of the access to information.
However, ARTICLE 19 welcomes the fact that there has been an important level of progress in understanding of the basic principles of AIL by the Brazilian Judiciary, which represents a significant advance for the right to information in Brazil.
Read the report (in Portuguese).