Cuba may not be famous for consumer choice but even there hotel guests can now flick through a bewildering array of television channels in their room. On a recent trip to Havana I found not just established channels such as CNN and Deutsche Welle, but newer contenders such as CCTV-9 (from China) and Telesur (funded by President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela).

Ordinary Cubans, of course, are not (yet) exposed to such an unexpected array of choice. But in most parts of the world, consumers can now see different versions of what constitutes “news”, due to the rapid and recent growth in 24-hour news stations. On CNN last week, for example, there was wall-to-wall coverage of the Democratic convention in Denver. On Telesur the ever-present smiling face was that of Mr Chávez, not Barack Obama.