Freedom Inc

Many in the journalism business think ‘private treaties’ infringe upon fair reporting — owners of newspapers buy up equity of companies in return for free advertisement space and, more often than not, the newspaper/magazine ends up doing favourable stories on the ‘private treaty’ firms. So it did come as a bit of a surprise when The Times of India, the pioneer in the private treaties business, decided to celebrate Independence Day with the ‘Times Private Treaties Family’. Some of the private treaty firms have been given stalls on each floor of the Times and are selling their wares to Times employees. This 13th, the mailer the journalists got announcing the program said, ‘is going to be Lucky for All...’