Protest history

Now, I know how people "without" disabilities react to an inaccessible Internet. 

Here is a protest history, with 957 supporters from 27 countries, concerning blocking access to a Protuguese public Internet service, during 12 days. 

Homepage:

http://members.tripod.com/~Protesto_MC/press_release_eng.html


Begin of Protest History

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


The Terravista 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.

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

The closing of Terravista 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 Terravista service. 

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. 

By the Movement of protest for the reopening of the Terravista
Official homepage: http://come.to/protesto

End of Protest History

I would appreciate if someone send some constructive comments to the Movement of Protest (ffe@mail.terravista.pt; rsilva@pobox.com). Maybe, your support could help to understand that there are people that fell frustrate to have an Internet 100% inaccessible.

Francisco Godinho
Portugal

The Bug of Accessibility:
http://www.terravista.pt/meco/1734/bug.html
(there are portuguese and english text mixed)