The Contest Designed by Photojournalists for Photojournalists

Compete with the very best in still and television photojournalism, in picture editing, and Web editing. Now in its seventh year, the Best of Photojournalism (BOP) is the world's leading digital photojournalism contest.

BOP is a project of the National Press Photographers Association.

1st Place, Best Published Picture Story (smaller markets)

Francesco Zizola/

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2007.07.01 The view of Male from the airplane. Male is the capital of the maldives .Total of population of the maldive 300,000 people, population of Male 80.000 people, 467,154 tourists per year.

The Maldives is a tourist’s paradise, a picture postcard, a honeymoon dream spot. But behind this front is a Muslim dictator regime. Maldivian women are veiled and rarely seen and alcohol is banned. Resorts are owned by government ministers. The President , Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, is about to be elected for the fifth time (with an expected change in the Constitution), but he is being contested by radical Islamic groups, which are against the business of tourism and its un-Muslim activities.As the country attempts to emerge from years of repression, the population have frequently sought to peacefully express their views through public rallies and demonstrations. However the government responds with punitive measures against the demonstrators and those criticizing the government. Mass arbitrary arrests and continued detention of people without charge or trial took place in August 2004, several times in 2005 and this year. Following the recent wave of arrests, the opposition called off their planned demonstration, but the government continues to keep scores of their supporters in detention.

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