Macau exhibition showing Hong Kong protest photos shuts
An annual World Press Photo exhibition featuring
images from Hong Kong's huge pro-democracy protests last year has been shut
down in Macau without explanation, sparking speculation of political pressure
from Beijing.
The exhibition has been hosted by the Association
Casa de Portugal Macao every year since 2008 and was scheduled to run from late
September until October 18.
The exhibition showcased "the best visual
journalism" of the past year and included prize-winning images of the Hong
Kong protests captured by AFP photographer Nicolas Asfouri.
The World Press Photo Foundation said in a statement
that they "regret" the premature closure and "haven't been able
to confirm the reasons" for it.
"While the reasons for the closing remain
unclear, we are following local media reports suggesting that it might be the
result of external pressure on the content of the exhibition," said
Laurens Korteweg, director of Exhibitions at the World Press Photo Foundation.
"Supporting the conditions for freedom of
expression, freedom of enquiry, freedom of the press is a fundamental part of
our work," he added.
The exhibition featured photographs from the massive
pro-democracy protests that brought Hong Kong to a standstill for months last
year.
Macau's English and Portuguese Speaking Press
Association told local media that the city is "facing something serious
and a 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 a photo
exhibition of the deadly Tiananmen Square crackdown on pro-democracy activists
for the first time in three decades.
Both Macau and nearby Hong Kong are former colonies
that were granted certain freedoms unseen in the Chinese mainland when they
returned to communist China's rule.
But many fear such rights are disappearing under
Beijing's tightening grip.
After last year's huge and often violent democracy
protests, Beijing launched a crackdown on its critics in Hong Kong.
In late June, it also imposed a broadly worded
security law that outlawed certain views and ushered in a new political chill.
