OSAKA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Panasonic Corporation announced the Grand Prix winners of the Kid Witness News (KWN) and Eco Picture Diary (EPD) global contests at the Panasonic Kids School Global Awards Ceremony 2013, held at the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris on December 5, 2013. KWN and EPD are part of the Panasonic Kids School Program, and this is the first time an award ceremony for both the KWN and EPD contests have been held together. In addition to the grand prix, the winners in 10 other categories in both programs were also announced.

At the award ceremony, Mechtild Rossler, the Deputy Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, made a welcome speech to the children, and the trophies and award certificates were awarded to the winners.

In this year’s KWN contest, pieces created from the unique perspective of children covering topics such as child labor and bringing hope to life were selected for the final stage of judging. Out of these, Mount Aspiring College, a junior high school in New Zealand, was selected as the Grand Prix winner for their video “Forever Emily”, which was highly appraised for the high level of planning involved in the project as well as the filming and editing techniques used.

In this year’s EPD contest, there were many entries that colorfully expressed the eco activities thought up and carried out by the children themselves and highlighted their interest in the conservation of the environment. The Grand Prix winner of the contest was Ádám Riba of Hungary. His diary was praised for demonstrating a high level of eco-awareness for preserving the environment in the unique form of a pop-up book.

In June 2013, Panasonic renewed its strategic partnership agreement with UNESCO. Panasonic will continue to work to help foster eco awareness among children worldwide in line with the partnership agreement with UNESCO.

For further information on the other 5 category awards, please view the sites below:

KWN Global Site (English)
http://panasonic.net/kwn/contest2013/

Eco Picture Diary Global Site (English)
http://panasonic.co.jp/ad/pks/global/eco/en/contest2013/world/

Related Sites

Panasonic Kids School for Developing the Next Generation (English)
http://panasonic.net/citizenship/education/

Panasonic Kids School Kid Witness News (English)
http://panasonic.net/kwn/

Panasonic Kids School Eco Picture Diary (English)
http://panasonic.co.jp/ad/pks/global/ecorelay/index.html

Panasonic x World Heritage (English)
http://panasonic.net/promotion/worldheritage/

About Panasonic

Panasonic Corporation is a worldwide leader in the development and engineering of electronic technologies and solutions for customers in residential, non-residential, mobility and personal applications. Since its founding in 1918, the company has expanded globally and now operates over 500 consolidated companies worldwide, recording consolidated net sales of 7.30 trillion yen for the year ended March 31, 2013. Committed to pursuing new value through innovation across divisional lines, the company strives to create a better life and a better world for its customers. For more information about Panasonic, please visit the company's website at http://panasonic.net/.