There have been rumours that the photo looks too artificial, but it is real. I don't mean that with "lying". The photographer too has not lied in his simple descriptive caption "Young Lebanese driving through a destroyed quarter of Beirut". That's all he could know when taking that picture.
The photo itself is lying by the wrong story it evokes in the observer. I have seen photo captions alluding to rich young Lebanese from a not destroyed part of the City on a "catastrophe safari" (war tourists) without any compassion with those who had lost their homes.
This is the story the picture evokes and I guess this is why it has been awarded. There have been such people in Beirut sipping brandy in Christian or Sunni quarters on the roofs of their houses while watching Shiite quarters being bombed. But the people on the photo are not these.
The real story of this picture is different. Bissan Maroun (the woman in the middle of the back) tells the story: The young people are actually from the destroyed neighbourhood. They had fled during the bombardments to a safe place. This is their first journey back into their destroyed neighbourhood in a borrowed car. The three siblings (and two friends) wanted to find out whether their appartment block was still standing. Maroun's flat has been actually hit hard with all the windows smashed and most of the furniture destroyed.
When this photo was published, Maroun had a lot of trouble with people who didn't know her well enough. For a couple of days she couldn't come to her job.
The photo is real, the original caption was correct and still it has told a lie.
The five people may be invited to the ceremony, now the real story is known. But would this photo be world press photo 2007 when the real story would have been known earlier?