The invention concerns a valve, in particular a regulating or shut-off valve, for liquid or gaseous media having a valve housing (12), which has at least one through hole (14), having a valve seat (17), which is closed by a valve closing component (31), having a drive (35) that is connected to the valve housing (12), which has at least one control element (39) made of a shape memory alloy for controlling the opening and closing motion of the valve closing component (31), and operates the valve closing component (31) to open or close the through hole (14), and the control element (39) is formed of at least one wire element is at least partly encompassed by a protective cover (45).