Jonathan Fointaine’s “The Nomad’s Final Journey”, which was awarded with an honorable mention by the World Press Photo jury, is on display at the opening of the World Press Photo 2023 exhibition at the Hungarian National Museum, in Budapest, Hungary, Thursday, Sept. 21, 2023. Minors under 18 have been barred from visiting this year’s World Press Photo exhibition in Hungary after the government determined that some of its photos violate a contentious law restricting LGBTQ+ content.
But a set of five photos by Filipino photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales led a far-right Hungarian lawmaker to file a complaint with the country’s cultural ministry, which found that they violate a Hungarian law that prohibits the display of LGBTQ+ content to minors.Hungary hosts international training for military divers who salvage unexploded munitions
Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, called it worrisome that a photo series “that is so positive, so inclusive,” had been targeted by Hungary’s government. It was the first time that one of the exhibitions had faced censorship in Europe, she said. headtopics.com
The move to bar young people from the exhibition was the latest by Hungary’s government, led by nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, tois designed to insulate children from what it calls sexual propaganda, it has prompted legal action from 15 countries in the European Union, with the bloc’s Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling it “a disgrace.”
“How the LGBTQ minority lives is not the biggest problem in the world,” Duro told the AP. “What we see as normal, what we depict and what we convey to (children) as valuable influences them, and this exhibition is clearly harmful to minors and, I think, to adults too.” headtopics.com
“What is harmful is limiting visibility for the LGBTQIA+ community, and their right to exist and to be seen,” Reyes Morales wrote. “I am beyond saddened that their story might not reach people who need it most, saddened that their story is being kept in a shadow.