IPN Announces New R.C. Hoiles Prize for Regional Journalism

International Policy Network is pleased to announce the first annual R.C. Hoiles Prize for Regional Journalism. The $15,000 prize recognizes journalists addressing regional US issues whose writing best reflects the Freedom Philosophy developed by R. C. Hoiles.

Raymond Cyrus Hoiles, founder of a chain of US newspapers that became Freedom Communications, believed that newspapers can be a force for good only if they stand “for principles that are in harmony with natural moral law.” He therefore sought to ensure that his papers consistently adhered to this Freedom Philosophy, upholding the First Amendment and supporting freedoms economic, social and religious.

Hoiles was a voluntaryist who believed that the sole legitimate function of government is to protect individuals against fraud and force; everything else should be left to the private sector. He applied this Freedom Philosophy to city, county, state and regional matters. To this day the Orange County Register, a Hoiles paper, is regarded nationally as a model for such journalism.

Hoiles believed that if the initiation of force by individuals is wrong, then it is also wrong for government. Consistent with this philosophy, he took a courageous stand against the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. He also opposed the “tax-supported school system”, which promoted the view that “might makes right; that the end justifies the means; that there is no law superior to the will of the majority.”

The R.C. Hoiles Prize for Regional Journalism is generously supported by a gift from R.C.’s granddaughter, Pamela Hoiles.

The Hoiles Prize & Bastiat Prizes

The Hoiles Prize will comprise three awards: first ($10,000), second ($4,000), and third ($1,000).  The Hoiles Prize will be awarded to the authors who most efficaciously apply the universal principles of freedom to news at the regional or local level in North America.

Entrants to the Hoiles Prize will not be allowed to enter the Bastiat Prize(s) in the same year. The Hoiles Prize, the Tenth Annual Bastiat Prize for Journalism and the Third Annual Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism will be awarded at a dinner and ceremony in New York later in the year.  A full set of rules for each prize will be available when submissions open on June 1, 2011.