CUHK Warns Students Over 'illegal' Posters

Chinese University has warned students that promotional material created for a photo exhibition on last year's clashes at the university could be illegal, as it also condemned their description of what took place on campus.

A poster for the event shows, among other things, flags which read "Liberate Hong Kong, revolution of our times" and a black-clad protester wearing a respirator.

Also depicted are the current and former heads of the university, Rocky Tuan and Joseph Sung, who had turned up at the scene of the clashes to try to de-escalate tensions.

In a statement, CUHK said the poster contains potentially illegal content and an inappropriate use of images.

It also said it is extremely regrettable that the exhibition organisers have provided "biased" descriptions of the violent clashes, adding that it does not allow any behaviour that is illegal or damages its reputation, and it has the power and responsibility to ban any activities that are against the rules.

However, the university's Campus Radio quoted a student leader as saying they would not withdraw the promotional material.

"Do we have to blur the graffiti and the flags in the photos we exhibit then?" Anson Yip from the students' union asked on the station.

The exhibition, scheduled for November 11-18 on the university's campus in Sha Tin, is to commemorate the first anniversary of the prolonged battles at the site, when protesters threw petrol bombs, bricks and other objects at police who responded with volley after volley of tear gas and rubber bullets.

"The psychological traumatic experience of the siege continues to haunt us, and is forever etched deeply into our hearts and minds ... We must stay alive to remember and to tell of what has happened," organisers said.