I would go further ... AFN, and Radio Tehran (to name but two).

Or are you thinking of Ham Radio?

I have always found Aljazeera English a good source of news and it is surprisingly balanced in it's views unlike the BBC. It is amazing some of the very important topics they cover, that don't even get a mention on the BBC or Sky News.

... not to mention the plethora of specialist web-sites (that is, those with an agenda*), forums and blogs!

That's the great thing about the web ... unlike our fathers (and grand-fathers) we don't just have to "believe what we have been told". Television was just a step in the evolution of bringing information (and entertainment) to the Masses.

People are more informed than ever before ... and yet less and less bother to vote at elections (there could be a PhD thesis right there)!

These days folk are much more "aware". It's the New Democracy.

And no doubt the Powers That Be would control it all (the "media", the internet, the tweeting etc., etc.) if they could. As they already do to a certain extent, of course:- witness the latest kit available to the Met (aimed at "managing" cell-phone messaging).

All we need now is Real Democracy. Some might say that we're getting there (and perhaps we are). But myself I see it as a race between the NWO (One World Government, the Bilderbergers ... and all that) versus "everybody else".

In fact that "race" has already really become a battle. Let's just hope that it doesn't end up as a war!

* Could that be all of them?