World Press Photo | HKBU cancels exhibition, cites Covid-19 safety concerns

The Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) has called off their hosting of the World Press Photo 2020 (WPP2020) exhibition. The exhibition was canceled on Friday afternoon, just three days before the event’s expected launch date (March 1), the organizing committee informed via their official Facebook page.
“We are sorry to inform you that our venue partner, Hong Kong Baptist University, canceled the World Press Photo Exhibition 2020, just three days before it would [have] open[ed],” the organizers wrote, adding, “For over a year, our team in Hong Kong worked towards realizing this showcase of some of the world’s best visual journalism, as a testament to the importance of visual storytelling and press freedom.
“We regret it for Hong Kong and for everyone who helped to bring this project to life,” the organizers concluded.
As the Times previously reported, the exhibition should have been open from today until March 21, and was set to be hosted by The Institute for Journalism and Society at HKBU.
Later that same day, HKBU issued a statement noting that the event’s cancelation was due to Covid-19 prevention measures and concerns regarding campus safety.
“After giving due consideration to campus safety and security, and the need to maintain pandemic control, the Hong Kong Baptist University considers that it is not an appropriate time to hold the ‘World Press Photo Exhibition 2020’ on its campus,” the statement says.
A justification which, according to media sources in Hong Kong, was not well received by the organizers. According to the Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) media outlet, event organizers expressed displeasure at HKBU’s decision, which they believed was due to “political pressure.”
In an email response to HKFP, organizers are quoted as saying: “The university held a top-level emergency meeting on February 25 and decided it is neither the [correct] political nor pandemic climate for the event after all. They said the security and protection of their students would be at risk if the exhibition – which had been planned for months and was hours away from being installed – would go ahead.”
The WPP2020 has been under fire, namely in Chinese territory, since it was launched. The exhibition includes an award-winning work from photojournalist Nicolas Asfouri. Asfouri is a Danish national who was born in Beirut, Lebanon and has worked for Agence France-Presse for 19 years.
The work, which portrays the social unrest and anti-government protests in Hong Kong, was considered controversial by many people.
The last-minute cancelation of the exhibition in the neighboring region comes amid growing concerns over censorship in its region, as authorities continue to pursue the punishment of those involved in the protests and crackdown on political dissent using the national security law – one of the motivators of the protests.
Hong Kong was the second location within Chinese territory where the WPP2020 exhibition was to be held. The exhibition also faced difficulties in its first location, Macau, when it was suddenly ended without any notice or justification in October last year, after being held at the Casa Garden venue for just one week.
As the Times reported, the closure of the exhibition in Macau occurred 18 days earlier than expected, with local organizers Casa de Portugal em Macau only saying that the closure was occurring because of “management reasons.”
According to Hong Kong media sources, using the Covid-19 pandemic as justification to close the exhibition is not convincing. Despite the pandemic, the university has held several public events, including a fashion show last Friday, the same day that the decision to close the WPP2020 was announced.
In a previous communication to the Times in late January this year, when it was announced that the exhibition was to be held at HKBU, senior lecturer and director of International Journalism at the Journalism Department of HKBU, Robin Ewing, confirmed that the exhibition would not undergo any changes and would feature all the winning photojournalism works.
“The Institute for Journalism and Society, part of the Journalism Department at Hong Kong Baptist University, is hosting the World Press Photo Exhibition 2020 in March. We have made no adjustments to the exhibition, and it will include all of the winning photos, as well as the winning photo interactive [display],” Ewing replied, adding, “We are aware of the early closure of the exhibit in Macau, but we trust that Hong Kong’s law guaranteeing freedom of the press will continue to be respected.”