Voice of the Listener & Viewer Chairman to receive CBE Award

Jocelyn Hay, the Founder and Chair of Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV), who was made a CBE in the 2005 Queen’s Birthday Honours, will be at Buckingham Palace to receive her insignia on Tuesday December 13.
Mrs Hay was made an MBE in 1999 and in the same year received the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association’s Elizabeth R Award for outstanding services to public service broadcasting.
Mrs Hay, who lives in Gravesend, Kent with her husband Andrew, will be accompanied on Tuesday by her daughters Jill Marks and Anne Mayhew, and son-in-law Paul Mayhew.
Mrs Hay founded Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) in 1983 and has chaired the association since.
She said: "I am delighted to have been made a CBE, and especially so in this year when Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) has been celebrating its 21st anniversary. I am particularly pleased that the Award gives recognition to the help and support of so many people who have worked with me over the years to make VLV what it now is, the recognised voice of listeners, viewers and licence fee payers.
“When VLV was formed things were very different. There were then no channels through which viewers, listeners or licence fee payers could make any positive input into broadcasting decisions. All they could do was complain and complaints do not deliver good programmes. Now, it is taken for granted that the views of the licence payer should be heard and that public consultations will be held before any major change is introduced to the broadcasting system. VLV can claim much of the credit for that change in attitude for now VLV‚s views are routinely sought by broadcasters, regulators, politicians and civil servants. As we move into a fully digital environment I believe that VLV and its work will become even more important.”
Voice of the Listener & Viewer (VLV) is an independent, non-profit making association working for quality, independence and quality in British broadcasting and to maintain the principles of public service in broadcasting. VLV has no commercial, political or sectarian affiliations, and is concerned with the issues, structures, regulation, institutions and funding that underpin the British broadcasting system.
(GB)