The Washington Post’s Radley Balko and The Wall Street Journal’s Hugo Restall are co-winners of Reason Foundation’s annual Bastiat Prize, which honors writing that “best demonstrates the importance of freedom with originality, wit, and eloquence.”
The 2017 Bastiat Prize winners, Radley Balko and Hugo Restall, are shining examples of how journalism can help defend liberty,” said Julian Morris, vice president of Reason Foundation and founder of the Bastiat Prize. “Balko’s work highlighting the injustices of America’s criminal justice system is making a tangible impact on individual lives and the public debate. Restall boldly argues for the rule of law in a part of the world where arbitrary and capricious intervention by government is the norm.”
For winning, Balko and Restall split $16,000 in prize money and receive engraved crystal candlesticks. The prize is named after Frédéric Bastiat, whose brilliant, witty essays explained, “The solution to the problems of human relationships is to be found in liberty.”
Balko, author of the book “Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America’s Police Forces,” covers criminal justice, the war on drugs and civil liberties for The Washington Post. He was previously a senior editor at Reason magazine.
Restall is editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Asia and a member of The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board.
The winners were announced at the Reason Media Awards in New York City tonight, where Ajit Pai, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, gave the keynote address.
Previous winners of the Bastiat Prize include, Daniel Hannan, Robert Graboyes, Lane Filler, Ross Clark, Virginia Postrel, Anne Jolis, Tom Easton, Bret Stephens, John Hasnas, A. Barton Hinkle, Amit Varma, Jamie Whyte, Tim Harford, Mary O’Grady, Robert Guest, Brian Carney, Sauvik Chakraverti and Amity Shlaes.
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