A 'funeral march of art' is being held by the Front Against Censorship in Valletta on July 24, starting from City Gate at 10.30 a.m.

In a statement, the front said that while Malta wassupposed to be celebrating culture through the The Malta Arts Festival, art was still being censored.

It said in a statement that some paintings by Aleksandar Stankovski have been banned from being exhibited at the Gozo Arts Festival.

Jasmina Kotevska, who arranged to have these paintings exhibited was told by the person organising the art exhibition that the paintings were banned after a report was filed to the Gozo Ministry. The paintings had already been exhibited in Macedonia without problems.

The front said that the censorship regime wasstill busy making a massacre out of art and in the process suffocating freedom of expression.

"We are hence inviting you to attend the funeral march of art.

"This funeral comes with a response to the court sentence which upheld the ban on 'Stitching'. The funeral will be held when the Arts Festival ends and art will be carried in a coffin by members of the FAC."

This march, the front said, would also be symbolising the dying state of the arts in Malta as a result of censorship. State censorship created a sense of fear, self-censorship and took away our civil liberties,it said.

Participants are being invited to wear black to mourn Maltese art.