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HONG KONG: An annual World Press Photo exhibition featuring images of the huge Hong Kong protests last year was closed in Macau without explanation, sparking speculation about political pressure from Beijing.
The exhibition has been organized by the Casa de Portugal Macao Association every year since 2008 and was scheduled to run from the end of September to October 18.
The exhibition showcased “the best visual journalism” of the past year and included award-winning images of the Hong Kong protests captured by AFP photographer Nicolas Asfouri.
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The World Press Photo Foundation said in a statement that they “regret” the premature closure and “have not been able to confirm the reasons” for it.
“While the reasons for the closure remain unclear, we follow local media reports that suggest it could be the result of external pressure on the content of the exhibition,” said Laurens Korteweg, exhibition director for the World Press Foundation. Photo.
“Supporting the conditions for freedom of expression, freedom of investigation, freedom of the press is a fundamental part of our work,” he added.
The exhibition featured photographs of the massive protests that paralyzed Hong Kong for months last year.
Macau’s English and Portuguese Speaking Press Association told local media that the city “faces a serious and worrying episode that signals an erosion of the space for freedom and expression” if the closure was due to political pressure.
In May, the gambling enclave banned an exhibition of photos of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy activists for the first time in three decades.
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Both Macao and nearby Hong Kong are former colonies that were granted certain invisible freedoms in mainland China when they returned to the rule of Communist China.
But many fear those rights are disappearing under Beijing’s increasingly strict control.
After the huge and often violent protests last year, Beijing launched an offensive against its critics in Hong Kong.
In late June, he also imposed a broadly worded security law that banned certain opinions and ushered in a new political coldness.
