Rejected for technical issues

Hello,

In my view, I think the photo could be brightened up a bit. It is a bit dull. Add more contrast as well.

There are signs of noise in the sky, so this also could be an issue.

As mentioned, the composition also isn't that great!

Thank you all. I'll take a look at all these ideas.  Perhaps my jpg export settings are a source of artifacts.

Personally, the sin that I see is the composition, all turned to the left, leaving a very large empty space and without justification, this type of imbalance in a photo was done a lot in a press photo to later place the label of a headline or header, The photo will have better vertical composition, you should try to compose using the grid of thirds.

Artifacts and the poles have a halo on the left side.

On second glance at 100%, I'm seeing noticeable compression artifacts in the sky.

Without the exif included, it's going to be a bit harder to give accurate feedback.

I did spot some noise a little past 100%, but it wasn't super noticeable and I wonder if that was the culprit.  I've certainly had noisier photos get accepted.

I wonder if the won't box was checked, and this was actually an intellectual property refusal?

I also wondered if the worn areas on the flag was the reason for refusal?