Full Disclosure
As a journalist – particularly a technology journalist – I am regularly given things. More often than not these are on a loan-basis and have to be returned after two weeks. However every now and again – and it’s rarer than you might think – I’m given something to keep.
For the record I have never asked any company to give me anything for free; all freebies have been given to me unsolicited and unprompted.
Regardless it’s obviously vital that freebies – whenever and however they’re received – have no impact on a journalist’s independence. I strongly believe that nothing I’ve ever been given has influenced my work but it is up to others to decide that.
To that end, below is a list of free things I have been given in my role as a journalist, broken into two categories (‘Hardware’ and ‘Games’). It will be updated in future on a rolling basis.
Hardware:
Samsung Jet from Samsung
Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 from Sony Ericsson
Copy of Windows 7 Ultimate OS from Microsoft
Xbox 360 console
Samsung N310 from Samsung (loan with undefined time limit)
Toshiba NB-1000 from Microsoft (to test Windows 7 – loan of hardware with undefined time limit)
Digital TV “concession” from UPC
Seecode Vossor Vision from Seecode
MiFi modem from Three
Games:
Halo 3
Halo ODST
Halo Wars
Fable II
Gears of War 2
Forza Motorsport 3
The Saboteur
Assassin’s Creed 2
Dragon Age: Origins
Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts
Avatar: The Game
Left 4 Dead 2
Fable 2
Command & Conquer 4
Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Dante’s Inferno
Viva Pinata: Trouble in Paradise
Fifa World Cup 2010
Alan Wake
Prince Of Persia: The Forgotten Sands
