Death penalty exhibition cancelled in Belfast

An exhibition in Belfast challenging the use of the death penalty around the world has been cancelled after city councillors tried to censor some of the images. After unionist demands that posters showing hangings and executions be excluded from the exhibition, due to start tomorrow in the grounds of City Hall, a compromise was reached in which 29 of the most graphic images would be moved inside. The exhibition organiser, Hervé Matine, said that allowing politicians to choose which images were suitable for public showing established an unwelcome precedent and he was left with no choice but to cancel the event. "I want to have an exhibition of 100 posters, not 71 posters," he said. "We spent two months and 2,000 people sent their posters from countries like Honduras [so] how can I just authorise myself to say 'This one I don't like and I don't want people to see this'. "I don't like at all the idea of deciding for people. Certain councillors get together and they think 'This is good and this is not good.' " Matine said unionist councillors had said they were worried about the risk of vulnerable people killing themselves after seeing the graphic images: "The rate of suicide in Belfast is growing and they want to avoid people who may have tendencies to commit suicide to see the pictures and maybe have ideas of how to commit suicide," he said. Matine said the exhibition was about highlighting the brutality of a death sentence. "I want everyone to react when people in some countries get hanged, that's why we want to have public awareness about this horror." SDLP councillor Tim Attwood claimed unionist objections to the images of public executions were partly due to many of them being supporters of the death penalty. The exhibition, Death is not Justice, is being shown in 100 cities worldwide and was due to run until Sunday, the World and European Day against the Death Penalty.