By Suzanna Pillay

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA: Bullying is a culture that should not be tolerated – and this message was strong enough to secure top spot for Kuantan's Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Sultan Abu Bakar in Panasonic's Kids Witness News (KWN) 2008 National Contest.

Their five-minute self-produced video, entitled The Bullies and the Bullied, portrayed the harm of bullying in schools, and was the judges' unanimous choice out of a field of 24 finalist schools nationwide.

The winners will represent Malaysia at the KWN Regional Contest to be held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah next month, with the champion of that leg being nominated for the KWN Global Contest.

Worldwide, there are currently 609 schools in 24 countries participating in the programme.

Minister of Youth and Sports, Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaacob, praised the video education programme for students aged 10 to 15 for not only giving them the opportunity to develop creativity, but also confidence and learning how to work together effectively as a team. "It was very encouraging to see good interaction between teams with members of different races.

"It is this kind of spirit which needs to be cultivated in our youth," said Ismail.

KWN was initiated by Panasonic Malaysia in 2005 as part of its corporate social responsibility programme on education in collaboration with the Ministry of Education.

KWN is a global video education programme that requires the students to write, direct, act, edit and produce a five-minute video clip based on a chosen theme.

This year, students were required to create a video on either ecology, communication or culture and underwent training courses conducted by industry experts to equip them with the basic techniques in preparing a proper storyboard, scriptwriting, ha-ndling the camera, sound mixing and video editing.

Sekolah Rendah (Jenis) Kebangsaan Cina Chung Hwa from Seremban, Negri Sembilan, was runner-up with their video Quick to Listen, Slow to Speak which highlighted communications issues in society focusing on the family.

Coming in third was Sekolah Kebangsaan Perempuan Met-hodist Kuantan, Pahang, with their video What A Wonderful World which focused on preservation of the environment.

Six special awards were also handed out during the awards ceremony for scriptwriting, editing, videography, sound, anchor person and creativity.

The winners were: Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan USJ 12, Subang Jaya Selangor (scriptwriting); Sekolah Mene-ngah Kebangsaan Perempuan Sri Aman, Petaling Jaya, Selangor (videography); Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan USJ 13, Subang Jaya Selangor (editing); Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Air Merah, Kulim, Kedah (sound); Sekolah Kebangsaan Permatang, Teluk Intan, Perak (best anchor person) and Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Kete-reh, Kota Baru, Kelantan (creativity).

The nine teams and their videos were chosen from a total of 61 video entries that were shortlisted for judging.

Members of the judging panel comprised prominent figures from the film and media industry, including film producer/director Othman Hafsham, cultural activist Normah Nordin, president of Persatuan Perfileman Malaysia S. Mohan, TV3's head cameraman Mohd Rashid, assistant general manager, corporate communications and branding, Azizah Wahid and editor of Life & Times, New Straits Times Suraya Al-Attas.