Finalists for sixth annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism announced

International Policy Network today announced the six finalists for the sixth annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism. The Prize – named in honour of the great 19th Century French philosopher and essayist Frédéric Bastiat – celebrates writers whose work cleverly and wittily promotes the institutions of the free society.

Commenting on the announcement, IPN Executive Director Julian Morris, said, “This year, we received over 280 submissions from writers in more than 60 countries, the overwhelming majority of them very high calibre.

The final decision is now in the hands of our eminent panel of judges, which comprises two former winners, Brian Carney (Wall Street Journal) and Amity Shlaes (syndicated Bloomberg columnist), two world-renowned economists, Professors Bibek Debroy and Wolfgang Kasper, and the Chief Judge of the DC Court of Appeals, Douglas Ginsburg. We look forward to announcing this year’s winners at the Bastiat Prize dinner on October 24th.”

The 2007 finalists (in alphabetical order followed by the publication(s) in which their entries appeared):

* Clive Crook

The Atlantic Monthly, USA; National Journal, USA

* Jonah Goldberg

LA Times, USA; Orlando Sentinel/syndicated, USA; National Review, USA

* A. Barton Hinkle

Richmond Times-Dispatch, USA

* Dominic Lawson

The Independent, UK

* Patrick McIlheran

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, USA

* Amit Varma

Mint, India
The winners will be announced at the Bastiat Prize Dinner in New York on 24th October 2007. The first prize winner will receive US$10,000 and an engraved candlestick. Second and third prize winners will receive $4000 and $1000 respectively, as well as an engraved candlestick.

The Bastiat Prize was first awarded in 2002 and judges have included Lady Thatcher and Nobel-Prize-winners James Buchanan and Milton Friedman.

This year’s panel of judges is:

* Brian Carney

(Editorial Board member, Wall Street Journal)

* Professor Bibek Debroy

(International Management Institute, India)

* Judge Douglas Ginsburg

(Chief Judge, Washington DC Court of Appeals)

* Professor Wolfgang Kasper

(Emeritus Professor, University of New South Wales, Australia)

* Amity Shlaes

(syndicated Bloomberg columnist; visiting senior fellow, Council on

Foreign Relations)

Last year’s joint first prize winners were Tim Harford of the Financial Times and Jamie Whyte for his articles in The Times of London. Rakesh Wadhwa took third prize for his articles in the Himalayan Times. Previous winners include Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal, Amity Shlaes (then with the Financial Times), Robert Guest (The Economist), Sauvik Chakraverti (Economic Times of India) and Brian Carney (then with the Wall Street Journal Europe). Entries for the Bastiat Prize are judged on intellectual content, persuasiveness of language used, and type and location of publication. The Prize is open to all writers, anywhere in the world; writers need not be associated with any specific publication. The Prize was developed to encourage and reward writers whose published works promote the institutions of a free society: property rights, the rule of law and limited government.

The Bastiat Prize is sponsored by International Policy Network (IPN), which comprises two sister organisations: a charity based in London and a non-profit 501(c) 3 corporation in the US. For more on IPN and the Bastiat Prize, please browse: www.policynetwork.net and www.bastiatprize.org