Last 29th of July, the portuguese Minister of Culture, Manuel Maria Carrilho, closed the Terràvista, a public service to offer free web hosting space for portuguese homepages, blocking the access to more than 25.000 homepages.

Maria Carrilho shut down Terràvista after knowing the existence of one homepage containing some DragonBall's pornographic "softcore" material. Every homepage in Terràvista will be reviewed by the government to eliminate improper materials. As stated in Terràvista's homepage (www.terravista.pt) the service will be reopened on the next 9th of August.

The closing of Terràvista as been harshly criticized by the portuguese media, and an official bilingual homepage in http://come.to/protesto is already collecting names for a on-going worlwide protest. This protest against the portuguese government decision appeals for the immediate reopening of the Terràvista service.

The visitors have the opportunity to join the growing list of supporters, simply by giving their name, email and country. The emails will be available in a daily email sent to the Minister, and will not be published online to avoid spamming.

This homepage also contains a timeline of recent events connected to the protest (portuguese version only) and relating the media reaction and support.

The portuguese branch of the Electronic Foundation Frontier (http://www.eff.org), fighting for the freedom of speech in cyberspace, has already condemned the closing and is supporting the official homepage for the electronic protest.

It is probable that the protesters will take some legal action against the portuguese Ministry of Culture, for damage due to the inacessibility of their homepages.

The President of the Portuguese Republic and the Prime-Minister have already been alerted for the protest movement but still haven't made any official statement about the Minister's resolution.

The Terràvista service was opened in 25th March 1997, with the support of the Ministry of Culture (now responsible for the closing), aiming to promote the portuguese culture throughout the online world. It is used by webmasters scattered by many portuguese-speaking nations, including Portugal, Brasil and several african countries. Every webmaster is allowed to use 2MB of free space.

By the Movement of protest for the reopening of the Terràvista
Official homepage: http://come.to/protesto
Almada, Portugal, 5th August 1998

Members of the press: Send your questions to Ricardo Nuno Silva. Please send the reference of any published articles about this protest, and their URLs if they're acessible online. Thank you.

Last update: 5th August 1998
URL: http://come.to/protesto Backup URL: https://members.tripod.com/~Protesto_MC