Civil Society Groups Denounce Violations of Right to Information in Brazil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Fourteen Brazilian and international organizations have denounced violations of the right to information by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

The lack of transparency has been further exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic, which has led to violations of fundamental rights, according to a virtual meeting with the IACHR’s Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Pedro Vaca. A detailed report with the relevant data and results of the investigation was submitted to the Commission.

During the pandemic, the government has “denied the right of access to reliable information to social groups such as indigenous peoples, women, blacks, children, youths, residents of favelas and the LGBTQI+”. The rights of these groups to education, health and freedom of expression had thus been “seriously violated”.

The protesters maintain the problem is not incompetence or lack of government planning, but rather a deliberate strategy to withhold information. For instance, the Ministry of Health has been slow to publish data on the number of people infected with Covid-19 and dying from its effects. “The coronavirus has deeply affected the populations living in the peripheries and the black population, the quilombolas, hard. And there is no data. That is why we call it an ‘information blackout’,” said Ana Flávia Marx, director of the Barão de Itararé Center for Alternative Media Studies in São Paulo. Marx is one of the representatives of the civil society association.

Cláudio Maierovitch of the Fiocruz Research Institute also accuses the Brazilian government of withholding information in connection with Covid-19: President Bolsonaro is trying to confuse the population by withholding data in order to “conceal the truth”.

Another key issue in the virtual meeting was that the government is the originator of disinformation campaigns and is also responsible for attacks on journalists. According to Ms. Marx, Bolsonaro’s “constant attacks” against the press encourage his supporters to do the same.

The unequal access to the Internet was also mentioned. The pandemic has put millions of children and adolescents in state schools at a disadvantage because they have no access to digital content and online classes.

In addition to the Center for Alternative Media Studies, journalists, unions and indigenous associations, human rights organizations and other non-governmental organizations are also involved in the complaint.