Brazil govt urging rapid senate debate of internet bill

Brazil's government is pushing for the Marco Civil da Internet (civil internet bill) to undergo rapid approval by the country's senate, which should receive the bill in the next few days.

The government expects to able to have the project approved in time for the Global Multi-stakeholder Meeting on the Future of Internet Governance (NETmundial), which Brazil hosts on April 23 and 24 in São Paulo.

Speaking to journalists after attending a hearing in the lower house's communications, science and technology committee, communications minister Paulo Bernardo said he believed the bill could be voted on and approved in less than 45 days, according to information from the lower house and the senate news services. The bill was approved by the lower house on March 25. Once passed by the Senate, the bill needs to be sanctioned by president Dilma Rousseff.

The deadline of 45 days corresponds to the bill being tagged as "urgent", whereby it becomes top priority, and if not approved during this period it goes on to prevent any other bill from being voted. In other words, the Senate is under pressure to deal rapidly with this project in order to avoid repeating the bottleneck that occurred when this bill was being discussed in the lower house. In that case the bill passed the urgency deadline without going to a vote, and "froze" the house's agenda for over five months.

Bernardo wants senators to have all the time necessary to go over the bill, but noted that the process should be fast given that it has already been so extensively debated in the lower house.

The Senate president, Renan Calheiros, has said the legislation will be simultaneously examined by three senate commissions in order to accelerate the process.

However, many doubt that the bill will be passed in the Senate and sanctioned by the president in time for the conference.

AN INTERNET "BILL OF RIGHTS" TO CALL MINE

Despite this likely setback, Bernardo considers approval by the lower house to be a victory that Brazil should be proud of, according to the reports. He has a point, considering the bill's endorsement by Sir Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the web - although he did not mention this fact when talking to press.

In the same lower house committee hearing, Bernardo said that claims for an open and free internet appear in the majority of the proposals submitted to the NetMundial steering committee.

"The approval of Marco Civil in the lower house is a victory for Brazil in this regard, a strong step for the country to reaffirm these principles," he was quoted as saying.

If the bill passes, Brazil will join Chile and the Netherlands as countries that have enacted net neutrality laws.