National Viewers' and Listeners' Association

The National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA) was a moralist pressure group focusing on campaigning to manage television coverage of taste and decency issues.

According to an account of the organisation introducing its archives:

In September 1964, she outlined her views on television standards in a Birmingham public meeting, famously declaring: 'if violence is shown as normal on the television screen it will help to create a violent society'. In 1965, she founded the National Viewers' and Listeners' Association (NVALA).

Mary Whitehouse consistently claimed that her intention was not to restrict the media but to improve standards. She thus recognised the media's power, and believed that it could directly influence society's values.

NVALA immediately set about pressuring television authorities. In 1972, NVALA launched the Petition for Public Decency, backed by 1.5 million signatures. Such initiatives may have borne fruit. Certainly, simultaneously, several Parliamentary acts were passed. The Protection of Children Act in 1978 made child pornography illegal, and in 1981 the Indecent Displays Act was passed. NVALA campaigning also led to the establishment in 1989 of a media advisory body - the Broadcasting Standards Council (BSC). Meanwhile, the association sought to praise good programmes by presenting awards.

Mary Whitehouse was president of NVALA for thirty years. She courted controversy and opposition and was widely vilified for her views. Official recognition for her campaigning for better standards in British media was accorded her in 1980, when she was awarded CBE. She corresponded regularly with leading politicians, appeared frequently in conferences and television shows to promote NVALA in the United Kingdom and overseas, and also wrote a number of books. She lived in Ardleigh, near Colchester, Essex. On her retirement, John C. Beyer took over as director of NVALA, which became eventually Mediawatch-UK.

See also

Mediawatch-UK | BBCwatch | Media Monitoring Unit

Archival sources

• Archives Hub National Viewers' and Listeners' Association Collection Dates of creation: 1970-1990 Held at: Special Collections, Albert Sloman Library, University of Essex