Culture Minister Elizabeta Kanceska-Milevska had the honor to open late Thursday the World Press Photo 2012 exhibition at the National Gallery in Skopje.

Every year following the World Press Photo Contest, the winning images go on tour. In April, the exhibition is officially opened in Amsterdam and can be seen at venues around the globe until March of the next year. The tour program takes in approximately 100 cities in 45 countries and is still expanding.

The exhibition, displaying about 160 photos, is a showcase for creativity in photojournalism and a platform for developments in the profession, part of World Press Photo's aim of encouraging and stimulating the work of press photographers around the world. The show also attracts a broader public and, because of the wide-ranging focus of the contest, forms an eyewitness record of world events from the previous year.

By hosting this exhibition Skopje becomes one of 100 cities worldwide, which present photos to broader public that depict the other side of the story, the truth about last year's significant events, Kanceska-Milevska said at the opening ceremony.