Panasonic Announces Seven Grand Prix Finalists for Kid Witness News Global Contest 2015

OSAKA, Japan. - Tuesday, July 28th 2015 -- Panasonic Corporation today announced the seven finalist schools representing seven countries for the Panasonic Kid Witness News (KWN) 2015 Global Contest. The Grand Prix winner will be selected from among them and announced on August 26 at the KWN Global Awards Ceremony in Singapore. This is the first global awards ceremony to be held in Southeast Asia.

KWN is a hands-on video education program that Panasonic operates as part of its efforts to support education of future generations and is currently being promoted in 19 countries and regions. The company provides video cameras and other equipment for video productions to elementary and middle schools participating in the program. The KWN program is also a competition that honors the video works created by children every year. To produce videos, students choose a theme on their own and handle everything from planning and scripting to filming and editing. Currently, some 5,000 children and teachers around the world are taking part in the program. The program, which began in the United States in 1989, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, and more than 170,000 children have participated to date.

This year's KWN Global Contest saw 553 schools from 19 countries and regions take part in the program by submitting five-minute videos. Under the broad theme of either communication or ecology, the videos focused on issues closely linked to children's lives through the eyes of children, such as the impact and interactions through social media, environmental issues, earthquake disasters and interactions with family members or physically challenged individuals.