Because of LGBTQ+ content: Hungary bans young people from World Press Photo Award exhibition

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A member of the »Golden Gays«, photographed by Hannah Reyes Morales

Photograph:

Hannah Reyes Morales / The NewYorkTimes / Redux / laif

Anyone under the age of 18 will not be allowed to visit the World Press Photo exhibition in Budapest this year. This was decided by the right-wing populist Hungarian government after it discovered that some of the photos violated a controversial law restricting LGBTQ+ content.

The prestigious global photography exhibition, which is currently on display at the Hungarian National Museum in Budapest, is visited by more than four million people from all over the world every year. However, a series of five photos taken by Filipino photojournalist Hannah Reyes Morales prompted a far-right Hungarian lawmaker to file a complaint with the country's Ministry of Culture.

As a result, people under the age of 18 are no longer allowed to enter the exhibition, not even with the consent of their parents.

The offending photos document a community of elderly LGBTQ+ people in the Philippines who have lived in a shared home for decades and cared for each other in old age. The jury of the World Press Photo Award had praised this photo story for its portrayal of the warmth, joy and dignity that emanates from the shared apartment.

Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of World Press Photo, said it was worrying that the photo series had now been targeted by the Hungarian government. It was the first time that one of her exhibitions in Europe had faced censorship, she said.

"The fact that access is restricted to a certain type of audience really shocked us," Khoury said. "It's unbelievable that this is this particular image, this particular story, and it's unbelievable that this is happening in Europe."

Tamas Revesz, a former World Press Photo jury member who has been organizing the Hungarian exhibitions for more than three decades, pointed out that more than half of the 50,000 visitors who visit the exhibition in Hungary each year are students. Thousands of young people would now not be able to see the exhibition.

While the Hungarian government insists that the 2021 "Child Protection Law" is intended to protect children from what it calls sexual propaganda, 15 countries in the European Union have taken legal action. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, called the law a "disgrace".

xvc/AP