The International Policy Network is a think tank based in London whose mission is promote free market solutions to our social ailments. Since 2002, IPN has been doling out the Bastiat Prize for Journalism and they've just announced this year's finalists. And, for the first time this year, IPN had created a new category for online journalists.

The journalists up for the award this year all hail from print media, including Matthew Kaminski of The Wall Street Journal and The Economist's Robert Guest. There are three finalists up for the online award: Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, for her Forbes.com column, Daniel Hannan, U.K. Member of European Parliament and Rohan Samarajiva, for columns written on LankaBusinessOnline.

The award itself is named after Frédéric Bastiat who was, for those of you in need a refresher on 19th century French politics, a philosopher who used satire to explain complex economic principles to the masses. Former winners include former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and economist Milton Friedman. PJ O'Rourke, the conservative humorist and Rolling Stone writer, will bring the star power to this year's awards dinner, which will take place on October 26 in New York.

Winners of the Bastiat Prize will receive $10,000 and winners on the online prize will get $3,000. Both winners will also be awarded a set of engraved crystal candlesticks, which is a reference to Bastiat's famous satirical political essay, "A Petition," IPN said.

A full list of the finalists after the jump

The finalists for the 2009 Bastiat Prize for Journalism are:

* Nolan Finley, The Detroit News
* Peter Foster, The National Post
* Robert Guest, The Economist
* John Hasnas, for his column written in The Wall Street Journal
* Matthew Kaminski, The Wall Street Journal
* Robert Robb, The Arizona Republic

The finalists for the 2009 Bastiat Prize for Online Journalism are:

* Shikha Dalmia of the Reason Foundation, for her column on Forbes.com
* Daniel Hannan, UK Member of European Parliament, for writings on his blog at Telegraph.co.uk
* Rohan Samarajiva, for columns written on LankaBusinessOnline

--by Greg Wasserstrom