PARIS — Following days of intense controversy, the jury of one of photojournalism’s top awards, the World Press Photo contest, stripped an Italian photographer of a first prize after it found that he had misrepresented the location of one of the atmospheric images.

The Amsterdam-based organization said on Wednesday that it had disqualified “The Dark Heart of Europe,” a 10-photo series by Giovanni Troilo about gritty Charleroi, Belgium.

“The World Press Photo Contest must be based on trust in the photographers who enter their work and in their professional ethics,” Lars Boering, the managing director of World Press Photo, said in a statement on Wednesday. “We now have a clear case of misleading information and this changes the way the story is perceived. A rule has now been broken, and a line has been crossed.”

The decision to rescind the award came a day after a leading photojournalism festival, Visa Pour L’Image, said it would not show any World Press Photos this year to protest what it said were staged photos. At a time when anyone with an Instagram account can become a de facto reporter, the controversy raises questions about what viewers should know about photos classified as journalism — and where one of the world’s most respected photo prizes draws the line between documentary photography and art photography.