Washington, D.C. (May 17, 2010) – The U.S. Department of State announces the selection of 18 finalist videos in the second Democracy Video Challenge and launch of voting for winners on YouTube.
People around the world can vote for their favorite videos until midnight GMT on June 15, 2010. Six winners, one from each geographic region of the world, will receive an all-expense-paid trip to Los Angeles, New York and Washington, DC in September.
The Challenge asks people around the world to complete the phrase Democracy is…through short online videos. Since its launch two years ago, more than 1,600 people from 111 countries have submitted entries and spurred the online engagement of at least 1.5 million people.
The Democracy Video Challenge is a part of Democracy is…, a global conversation created by a unique public-private partnership that includes democracy and youth organizations, the film and entertainment industry, academia, and the U.S. government. It leverages social networks to engage people around the world to share, debate, and learn from diverse perspectives on democracy.
This year’s Democracy Video Challenge high-level jury, chaired by renowned Peruvian economist and President of the Institute for Liberty and Democracy Hernando de Soto, narrowed the field to 18 finalists– three videos from each of the world’s six geographic regions.
There are size regional categories of Africa, with finalists, Burundi, Ethipia and South Africa; East Asia and Pacific, with finalists, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore; Europe and Eurasia, with finalists, Azerbaijan, Poland and Spain; Near East, with finalists, Algeria, Iran and Israel; and South and Central Asia, with finalists, Nepal, and Pakistan; and Western Hemisphere, with finalists, Columbia and United States.
View all of the videos and vote for each regional winner online at youtube.com/democracychallenge.
