The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ attention has been drawn to the attempts by the Russian embassy in Colombo to deny the people of Sri Lanka’s right to information and freedom of expression by demanding photos related to Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine to be removed from the World Press Photo exhibition currently on display in Sri Lanka.
The 2025 edition of the World Press Photo Exhibition was officially opened by Dr Kaushalya Ariyaratne, Deputy Minister of Mass Media, and Wiebe de Boer, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on February 27, 2026 at One Galle Face. The same exhibition will be held in Kandy from 13 to 17 March 2026 at Sahas Uyana.
The Ambassador of the Russian Federation to Sri Lanka visited the exhibition during the weekend of March 7 and 8 and demanded the photographs related to Russia’s war of aggression on Ukraine from the exhibition and threatened to stage a protest if organizers failed to do so.
The exhibition is jointly organized by the embassy along with the Sri Lanka Press Institute and World Press Photo Foundation in the Netherlands.
Continuing the same demand, the Russian embassy has now approached the Sri Lankan Ministry of Foreign Affairs to remove the said photos from the exhibition in Kandy. The same exhibition is currently underway in the USA and Germany and is showing all around the world in dozens of countries with freedom of expression.
The photos, including the photos that the Russian embassy in Colombo wanted to hide from the Sri Lankan citizens, are also available online on the World Press Photo website for free for anyone to access them. It Smells of Smoke at Home | World Press Photo
The Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands deplores the attempts by any party to compromise people’s right to know and right to freedom of expression. It also amounts to a violation of the host country’s sovereignty if an embassy attempts to decide what and which content its citizens should see and not. While we, as the embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, assure the Sri Lankan public that as our commitment to protect press freedom and respect for editorial integrity, we will continue the exhibition in Kandy with its full content without censoring any photos of the exhibition.
The exhibition is open to the public free of charge from 10.30am on Friday, March 13-17 at Sahas Uyana in Kandy.