BRAZIL

BRAZIL WHEREAS Bill 2961/97, of December 14, 1999, passed by the Chamber of Deputies, forbids public officials, police officers, prosecutors, attorneys general, judges and officers of the tax auditing office to providing information to the press WHEREAS such a bill, supposedly to protect the privacy of the accused until they are judged, in practice constitutes an act of censorship, which inhibits investigative reporting and limits freedom of the press WHEREAS The bill is unconstitutional and would harm freedom of the press and the right to information guaranteed by the Brazilian Constitution of 1988 and that the initiative contradicts the Declaration of Chapultepec, which Brazil signed in 1996 WHEREAS the intent of Bill 2961/97 was repeated in the proposed constitutional amendment to reform the judicial branch, when it prohibited attorneys general, prosecutors and judges from providing information to the press THE IAPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS RESOLVES to condemn approval of the bill and constitutional amendment because it constitutes an act of censorship which, besides affecting freedom of the press, is contrary to the country’s own Constitution to ask the Federal Senate president not to consider both initiatives in Bill 2961/97 and the constitutional amendment for reform of the judicial branch to ask the President of Brazil to veto the bill in keeping with the commitments he made opon signing the Declaration of Chapultepec.