In 1994 Mary Whitehouse CBE retired as president of the National
Viewers and Listeners Association. The
following is the address she delivered the Annual Convention
I |
nevitably at a time like this one looks back to the
beginning of what, in the event, has turned out to be a nationwide, indeed
worldwide campaign. Only last week we
received a request for assistance in launching a similar campaign from Chile
and it is only a few weeks since Rev Graham Stevens, our Chairman, went to
Lithuania to advise them at their request.
One recalls with love and gratitude those who were part of it all from
the beginning like Ernest of course, the late Basil and Norah Buckland and Dr David
Sturdy whose wife is with us today.
What days they were! Every one
an adventure in strange and sometimes dangerous ways.
Throughout the years, our work has always been a
manifestation of common sense, that least common of virtues and or responsibility. It has been a measure of the power of the
media and of television in particular that the obvious truths we were upholding
should have been made by the use of ridicule and contempt, to appear untenable
in the minds of some people at least.
And yet it was the late Sir Hugh Greens, Director General of the BBC for
the first twelve years of our existence, who said the "Television is the
most powerful medium ever to affect the thinking and behaviour of
people". And that surely is
incontrovertible but the real question is - what is television
transmitting? Perhaps of all one's
experiences our first public meeting in the 2,000 capacity Birmingham Town Hall
30 years ago this month stands without parallel. There were only four of us to organise it, and none of us with
any experience of such affairs. The
fact that the 'Times' correspondent the following morning referred to the
packed meeting and described it as "perhaps the most extraordinary meeting
ever held in the Birmingham Town Hall" gives some indication of the
miracle that was wrought.
And one has other vivid memories of that night, the
students who rushed the platform, the call we made for "An Independent
Broadcasting Council" as an alternative outlet for complaints and our
declaration that "Television violence helps to create a violent
society".
It is a strange experience to look back now and realise
what a dreadful price society and that means people, have had to pay for the
stubborn, one is tempted to say wicked, almost total resistance over the years
to an acceptance by the broadcasters of the power of the medium they handle to
influence public and personal behaviour.
There is no doubt in my mind that programmes like, say, C4s titled,
would you believe it, 'Goodfellas'!
Transmitted last month at 10.00pm when it is known that countless
youngsters are still viewing, make pernicious nonsense of the obligation not to
transmit programmes 'likely to incite to crime and disorder". The considered view of monitors is that this
was arguably the most explicitly violent and visually brutal film shown on
television to date, in which people were hacked and burnt to death all in the
name of entertainment.
The fact that the programme began with a warning to
viewers to the effect that it contains "lurid scenes of violence and very
strong language" could merely serve to attract the kind of people,
including youngsters, most likely to be adversely affected by it. I won't distress you by referring to more
than the opening brutal and explicit sequence typical of the whole film in
which an already battered and bleeding man is repeated stabbed with a broad
blade butchers knife, followed by shots of a Father beating up his son,
savagely lashing him across his face with a belt. All accompanied, as throughout the film, with gross obscenities
and blasphemies, and that is for entertainment! As we prepare for this convention we hear on the news that 2
million men, women and children are "hacked to death" in Rwanda.
I would like to read to
you the open letter that I propose we send from this meeting to Michael Grade,
Chief Executive of channel 4, with a copy to Sir George Russell, Chairman of
the ITC:
Dear Mr Grade, We imagine that
you cannot but be as shocked and distressed as are people all over the world by
the tragedies now being experienced in the Middle East and, of course, in
Rwanda where nearly 2 million starving people are being subjected to dreadful
violence and carnage. It is against
real life tragedies of this kind that your transmission as entertainment of
obscenely brutal films such as 'Goodfellas' (10.4.1994) I attach a
monitoring report) calls your judgement into question. Shown at an hour (10pm) when many young
people are still watching and against a background of increased social violence
here in Britain, it was arguably the most violent, obscene and blasphemous film
ever seen on British television. We are
not, of course, arguing a direct link between the screening of such films and
the events in Rwanda. We are arguing
that such transmissions de-sensitise us all and make us that much less prepared
to respond positively to the dangers in which others including many children
exist. Last month you attacked the use
of crime reconstruction programmes as ratings winners. Why, therefore, do you apparently approve
grossly violent films as ratings winners?
Please tell us where you stand.
One can only hope that both Michael Grade and Sir George
Russell will accept that they are in a very privileged position from which they
can make a positive contribution to the solution of one of mankind's most
urgent problems. While we must be
grateful for the fact that both the ITC and the BBC are, according to press
re[ports this week, "Bowing to public pressure" and are carry out
"full scale surveys" of the violence in their programmes to present
to heritage secretary, Rt Hon Peter Brooke MP, I should tell you that we have
presented Mr Brooke with a dossier of National VALA's monitoring of programmes
on both channels, including the ones to which I have referred.
I should say that our monitoring demonstrates that
such violence is by no means exceptional which leads one to the conclusion that
not only the broadcasters themselves but also the governing bodies responsible
believe that we, as viewers, have become so de-sensitised that we have no fight
left in us. We will have to demonstrate
otherwise. It is abundantly clear that
as of now neither the Governors of the BBC or members of the ITC are prepared
to make a reality of the responsibility laid by law upon them. I am going to suggest, therefore, that
everyone present here today sends a copy of the letter we are sending to
Michael Grade and of the details of 'Goodfellas' available on the
bookstand direct to their MPs and to the editor of your provincial and local
paper informing him of what you have done.
In addition to the problem of physical violence there is
the one of verbal violence of which the BBC film 'Cadillac Man'
transmitted last month at 9.55pm is an example. It would be entirely out of place for me to quote here the flood
of obscenities which characterise it but copies of the report are also
available for you to send to your MP.
B |
ut now I come to the matter of my retirement as president
of National VALA. I never thought the
day would come, so why? First of all,
it has to be said that age and health have played a key role. Ernest is now eighty one and I am eighty
four in a couple of weeks and it really has been nothing short of a miracle
that we have both been able to work often a twelve hour day or more week in the
week out without setting limits on what we did or how far we travelled. Suddenly things have caught up with us and
in particular as far as I am concerned the pain and discomfort caused by the
fracture of my spine.
Could it be, I asked myself, and then Ernest, that
the Lord is trying to tell us something?
Are we meant, in the years we have left, to spend more time together,
discover more fully the beauties of the wonderful Constable country in which we
live and spend more time with the family?
It would not mean, we tell one another, that we would cut ourselves off
from the work of national VALA or that the organisation itself would be in any
way diminished. Far from it! I can foresee more, not less, people taking
responsibility as is already happening with more spokesmen and women becoming
experienced in the art of public speaking and instant comment. And here in particular I want to mention
John Beyer, General Secretary or Nation VALA.
He has been as they say and certainly I do 'worth his weight in
gold'. His clear mind, gift of
immediate recall, no matter how long the time involved, his loyalty and total
integrity lie at the core of our success and I would like to see him carrying
more responsibility as he has already so successfully done in the last few
difficult months. But he of course has
not been the only one. Members of our
Executive Committee, of our branches, countless individuals including so many
of you here today, have over the years been bravely and imaginatively committed
to the work and that has been wonderful, without them all none of the miracles
of the last thirty years would, or could, have happened. Bless them.
And me? I am both
impressed and grateful for the Lord's timing.
I had no idea when I began writing my autobiography before the accident
to my spine, now seven years ago, that the book would have to be put on ice for
so long but this allowed much more material to be included! Neither did I have the faintest idea that
its publication would coincide so closely with the announcement of my
forthcoming retirement as President at this convention and tragically, with the
murder of little James Bulger which so moved the hearts and consciences of us
all and brought TV and video violence to the very forefront of public concern.
Quite remarkable, really, and I feel the move is positive
rather than negative. There are now
countless people in this country and abroad to whom the challenge to get
involved is an increasing reality.
While our campaign over
the years has seen the passing of the Child Protection Act, the Video
Recordings Act, the Indecent Displays Act and the establishment of the
Broadcasting Standards Council and the bringing of broadcasting under the
Obscene Publications Act, form which it was originally excluded, there remains,
it appears to me, one final hurdle of great significance. I refer to the need to make effective the
present Obscene Publications Act or rather introduce fresh legislation.
Throughout all our years of campaigning the
ineffectiveness of that Act with its clause demanding proof of "a tendency
to deprave and corrupt" has not only eaten away our efforts but, more
importantly, allowed the pornographers almost free run in which incalculable
harm in the lives of countless people, including children, has been wrought.
I declare, here and now, that I intend with Ernest's
approval, to dedicate whatever time I have left to the creation of effective
obscenity law. We already have the
Prime Minister's sympathy for our endeavours in this field but that is not
enough. We need his commitment to the
clause and I am currently seeking an opportunity to meet with him to express
how vitally important it is that the Government should take positive action in
this field.
I may be retiring as President but I am not backing away
from the fight to which I committed myself all those years ago. By simplifying my commitments I shall,
hopefully and in faith, be able to concentrate on what is arguably the biggest
and most important battle of them all.
May the Lord be with us all!
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