Images relating to the Hong Kong protests have been taken down from the 2020 Sony World Photography Awards website because of their “sensitive nature.” While the finalists are still in the running for a prize, the move has raised concerns over possible censorship.
See also: Ko Chung-ming’s ‘Wounds of Hong Kong’ series – removed from the Sony photography awards website
Contest organisers, the World Photography Organisation (WPO), removed shots from Hong Kong photographer Ko Chung-ming’s series titled Wounds of Hong Kong. The collection, which features ten images that highlighted the injuries and scars people had sustained from the city’s pro-democracy protests, was one of the finalists in the Documentary category.
Ko first discovered the link to his collection was broken last Friday. He told HKFP that he thought the website had been attacked, but later discovered two other shortlisted series related to the anti-extradition law protests had been removed as well.
He was referring to the submission by American photographer David Butow titled Battleground HongKong, and Hong Kong Protesters by Australian photographer Adam Ferguson.
In an initial reply to Ko’s inquiry, the WPO said his series was taken down temporarily because there had been concerns about the “sensitive nature” of some of his images.
“We have temporarily taken down the images as part of a standard process which we have to put in place for these type of cases, until we are able to review everything in further detail,” the WPO said.
But the WPO said the list of finalists had not changed, and the contest result will be announced on April 17.
“I don’t know who’s complaining and what their concerns are. But why should any ‘concerns’ not be addressed by the judges at the judging phase?” asked Ko in a response to HKFP. “As long as the final result is up to the jury’s professional judgement, I wouldn’t say there’s censorship,” he added.
On Tuesday, the page for Ko’s series was displayed as “404 Page not found” on the contest site. However, the same link was directed to a “Protected Page” on Wednesday, where a password was needed in order to view the content.
News of the collection’s removal spread quickly online. Some netizens left words of encouragement on the photographer’s Facebook page, while others criticised the organiser’s move as damaging.
“Photos taken during a war right in the war zone have won numerous awards, but I’ve never seen any of those labelled ‘sensitive nature’. Anyway, thank you so much for your effort and your truthful recording,” one commenter wrote.
“This is ridiculous, [and causes] damage to the freedom of expression,” another commenter wrote.
reisyan15 on February 19th, 2020 at 08:24 UTC »
This shouldn’t be acceptable. Make your voice heard, tell WPO why they shouldn’t bow down to China. You can Contact them trough their website. Art is supposed to be for pushing boundaries. HK photographs being a sensitive topic is such a BS excuse.
buzzzerus on February 19th, 2020 at 07:11 UTC »
Despite it being the WPO who removed the photos and not Sony, it is still censorship. This contest is considered to be among the top rated contests in photography and the fact of censorship shows how people are afraid of showing the truth or speaking their thoughts out. Its all about the money, power and fear.
GyariSan on February 19th, 2020 at 06:34 UTC »
Do people actually read the article? It's WPO (World Photography Organisation) who are against the images, not necessarily Sony. The contest has been around for a long time. While the name of the event has Sony in it as being the main sponsorship, but the actual organisers of the whole thing is WPO, which is a complete separate entity from Sony themselves.