Religious Right Groups
Media Standards Australia Inc.
.
(formerly National Viewers and Listeners Association of Australia)
| Leadership: | Founded by Mrs Beryl Van Luyn (d. 1998), who acted as its Secretary and driving force; current President is Paul Hotchkin. |
| Date formed: | 1984; name change is recent. |
| Area of operation: | WA, but maintains contact with like-minded groups throughout Australia. |
| Estimated membership: | Very small. MSA’s continued survival is entirely dependent on the efforts of a handful of activists. Nevertheless, it is a durable organisation. |
| Finances: | MSA leads a hand-to-mouth existence. Van Luyn complained that its funds were raised through ’street stalls and cake stalls, not very easy’. The group is still entirely dependent on members’ contributions. |
| Main objectives: | To safeguard the public, and especially children, “from stress and covert manipulative media influences such as violence, materialism, misrepresentation, sexual disorientation, and that which leads to disrespect for others or dysfunction or breakdown of the traditional family unit“. This aim is to be achieved through community lobbying. |
| Main activities: | According to the eulogy delivered at her funeral by Pastor Dwight Randall of Life Ministries, WA: “Beryl [Van Luyn's] special focus was broadcasting law. Every time the broadcasting tribunal or authority called for a review, Beryl … wrote to interested groups across the nation, urging action. She enclosed copies of the terms of reference and major issues, painstakingly marking each important point with yellow highlighter“. (Light, May 1998, 6). MSA still makes regular submissions to media inquiries etc. and writes letters, mainly to specialised (esp. Religious Right) magazines. |
| Links with other groups: | Well-regarded by the Religious Right fraternity, particularly the Australian Festival of Light and related organisations. |
| Publications: | Van Luyn sent out intermittent ‘action’ letters, as described above. MSA still issues an occasional four-page newsletter, but now relies principally on its website to communicate its views. |
| Sample quotes: | [Concerning the alleged breakdown of censorship procedures during the 1980s]: “We still had no way of informing the public of our fears regarding the slow implementation of an official, and humanist, 20 year plan to outwit conservative Australians, a plan that is ongoing, and which is now nearing completion.” (Beryl Van Luyn ‘Media Watch-Dog: National Viewers and Listeners Association of Australia’, Fidelity, July-September, 1991, 21) |
| “Nobody likes the thought of censorship, but when media influences affect our loved ones, I’m all for it.” (Paul Hotchkin, Light, November 1998, 4) | |
| “Now there are at least 13 [rock] bands named after the male genitals, 6 after female genitals, 4 after sperm, 8 after abortion and one after a vaginal infection.” (Free Congress Research and Education Foundation, Inc., as quoted in National Viewers and Listeners Association of Australia Inc., Submission to the Productivity Commission Inquiry into Broadcasting, n.d., 1998?, 7) | |
| Assessment: | Considerably less effective since the death of Beryl Van Luyn, who was responsible for alerting many larger bodies to the latest machinations of the ‘humanists’, as well as providing a program of action. |
| Contact details: | P O Box 211 Greenwood WA 6924 www.mediastandards.org |
