I’ve been hoping that someone else would post on the ‘Great Australian Media Hoax’. But since no one has – I’m going to stick my neck out …
As I am sure most here are aware – two young Australian radio presenters phoned the King Edward VII hospital pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles. The call was put through. The nurse who put the call through has, allegedly, committed suicide and the two young people have been accused of causing that death.
In my view that is utter bunkum.
The hospital, apparently, has a policy that no such calls should be passed through. That the staff did not follow the recognised procedure is down to the failure of the hospital to ensure that their staff enforced that policy. When Bearsy was taken into hospital earlier this year, I was told that I would not be given any details about his condition over the phone because of the risk that an ‘outsider’ was given information that they had no right to. Certainly, as the staff got to know me and my voice I got more detailed information – but, initially, I got no more than the fact that nothing had changed.
The news, as reported here, was that the King Edward was considering legal action. It was clearly angry – and I do wonder what was said to Jacintha Saldanha. I very much doubt that they treated her with kid gloves – despite Prince William’s dismissal of the whole affair.
It is, without doubt, tragic that Jacintha may have committed suicide. But, I cannot hold the two radio presenters responsible. They organised a hoax phone call, which was certainly no worse than those made by Jonathan Ross – who seems to have been forgiven extremely swiftly. In my opinion, no one could possibly have foreseen the outcome of these youngsters’ ‘prank’ phone call.
Boadicea's Chariot 
Hello, Boa. Since you ask, I have some thoughts on the matter. First of all, I am not a great fan of these radio pranks. Some are admittedly hilarious, ( eg. one that happened in South Africa, where the DJ called the Zimbabwean border officials and claimed to be a refugee who was stuck in the fence at the border while trying sneak in and was being approached by a lion.) But many are not and they embarrass and humiliate perfectly innocent people, such as was the case here. The hospital is not some sort of aggressive agency that pesters and harasses the rest of us. Nor is it a top secret government agency prepared to deal with security breaches, hoax or otherwise. Had it been a call centre that tried to sell insurance or time shares, fair enough. Or a government agency that had been heavy handed in the way it performed its duties, or an aggressive business organisation, or someone like Jonathan Ross who deserves a piece of his own medicine, then that would be understandable. In my opinion, this was a silly, unfunny, mean-spirited prank and I certainly thought so before I heard of the suicide. Especially so as it involved the Royal Family which is not able to resort to the tactics that are open to others.
That being said, the pair of presenters can hardly be held responsible for the woman’s death. Possibly the hospital had been too heavy handed while reprimanding her. Possibly she had a heap of other issues and this was the last straw or had nothing to do with her depression whatsoever. Or, possibly she was just mentally unstable. I do think the radio station which vetted the recording before broadcasting it should receive some sort of sanction, not because of the suicide, but because its staff misrepresented themselves and sought to gain confidential information. Such behaviour is unethical and nasty, even if it is not illegal.
As far as the presenters are concerned, a sincere apology should be the end of the matter.
Well, that is my view.
I do not think you can absolve the presenters from any blame, any more than I think Jonathon Ross is blameless. The fact is the affair was made far worse by the media;, broadcast, online and dead tree. I do not think anyone can say anything about the unfortunate nurse until after her inquest, but I suspect that either she was put under a lot of pressure from persons unknown as yet, or was already a bit fragile.
Also, what sort of security did the hospital have in place? Seems to be a bit feeble with the heir to the throne in their care.
The prank was extremely foolish. Both have been disciplined by their employers and their employers, in turn, have been disciplined by the companies that advertised on their radio station. Both hosts are young and they will now have to spend the rest of their lives with the knowledge that their prank spun out of control and someone died as a result. While not directly responsible for the nurse’s death they did contribute and they will have to deal with that for the rest of their lives.
Hello Boadicea.
I agree with FEEG. The whole media pantomime made the whole regrettable episode so much worse.
We simply don’t know if the mindless, stupid and malicious prank caused Jacintha Saldanha to commit suicide. Neither do we know what attitude the hospital adopted with the two nurses involved.
No, I don’t think the world wide humiliation of those involved is even remotely funny or acceptable, though it may well not be illegal.
The two involved could not have foreseen the tragic death, but they cannot, in my opinion, divorce themselves from the consequences of their actions.
So much for freedom of the press and the media. I would absolutely hesitate to advocate any restrictions on responsible reporting, but unthinking idiots like these two, and Jonathan Ross are nasty, stupid and if had my way, they would never be allowed to work in the media again.
Boadicea: Largely juvenile humour from the gitgo, but blame should accrue to the system not the perpetrators and not to the hospital system either.
Yes there was a policy in place at the hospital not to provide information etc. but both the perpetrators and the nurse were well aware, as we all are, that THESE are not ordinary folk to which the rules can be impartially applied. One does not say no to HMQ, even if she sounds a little foreign on the phone, it ain’t done.
But then again anyone with a modicum of common sense would also have realised that HMQ would not be calling in every five minutes to check whether Katey was still puking in her kidney dish. Those of us with longer memories remember her return from some long overseas trip when she greeted four year old Charlie with a polite but formal HANDSHAKE, leaving the poor scrap with a look on his face that said to the world “Who the hell was that!”.
Good morning, Boadicea. It seems to me that press opinion on this tragedy has polarised between the northern and southern hemispheres. This is the latest that I have read as at 17.00 GMT linkey thing .
While I accept that the DJs never anticipated the outcome of the prank nor wished Jacintha Saldanha any harm, I think that in the aftermath the Australian press needs to take into account the background in the UK of the phone hacking scandal and various other misdemeanours perpetrated by the fourth estate this year.
OZ
I read an interesting article yesterday in which the writer quoted the Samaritans’ line that suicide is extremely complex and can rarely be reduced to a causal line linking “they did this” to “so she killed herself”. It seems a little odd that a qualified nurse was handling the switchboard and that the nurse who actually gave out the information has not been mentioned . And now the nurse’s family has got the oleaginous Keith Vaz muscling in to get some of the limelight – they have my deepest sympathy.
Btw Boadicea, I consider Ross a complete waste of space and have not forgiven his stupid, unpleasant prank with the disgusting Russell Brand, of whom I would only say I’m sorry he’s given up drugs.
Boa, my view is that royal protection should include this kind of possibility. The hospital and its staff cannot always be on the alert – even if so instructed. Why aren’t there code words to signal that a genuine royal is calling? Just like an IRA attack, I mean. It’s elementary and avoids disasters like this.
Coming last to this I agree with all of the above comments.
I can only add a couple of thoughts.
Why did the hospital have no night operator, why at 5am was the phone being answered by a foreign nurse? With their prices I would have thought they could easily provide a proper trained night telephone operator who would have seen through this in an instant.
I have great sympathy for the Duchess of Cambridge who will forever remember this suicide as part of that child’s heritage as will the British people, hardly an auspicious beginning.
Personally I think the wretched individuals responsible should be fired the radio station closed through lack of advertising revenue and would hope that the Australian people cease to be so truculent, immature and generally unpleasant.
They do themselves no favours.
Whoever Russell Brand is should be dealt with similarly. The world is quite unpleasant enough already. Have these people no iota of self respect that they are willing to perpetrate such vicious inanities on others?
‘Youngsters prank’? Over egging the pudding! They were in their twenties earning serious wages. Quite old enough to understand the ethics of their actions.
Coming even laster than CO to this.
I have always disliked these sort of hoax calls. Just not my kind of humour and I go out of my way to avoid listening to them when they are broadcast.
I had to do a lot of body swerving for this one. Recordings of the call were regularly replayed on the Beeb and one click away on so many sites,until the news came through of Jacintha’s death. Amongst the worst offenders were papers who are now whipping up a frenzy about the tragic death of the nurse and calling for the heads of the two broadcasters.
I don’t know why she committed suicide and I feel no need to speculate thereon. I will await the inquest and the evidence that will then be available to all of us.
My main concern is that the broadcasting codes of both the UK and Oz apparently state that the consent of the unwitting victims should be obtained before such hoax calls are broadcast. My present understanding is that the station tried five times to obtain such consent but could not get an answer so went ahead and broadcast the call anyway. The hospital says that no such calls were received.
It does seem strange to me that the broadcasters got their call answered but that the legal department of the radio station could not get an answer after all those attempts. Whatever. As I say, the truth will hopefully out at the inquest.
It seems that. more or less, most here agree with me: yet another example of tasteless humour that has, this time, backfired badly.
I had no idea that the call had been replayed over and over again on the Beeb – that is pretty appalling and somewhat hypocritical to then demand the heads of the two Aussie presenters…
Sheona: your comment regarding the ‘oleaginous Keith Vaz’ echoed my thoughts when I saw him on the news last night!
JM, the post mortem results may show an overdose but will not explain why.
Sheona. Good evening.
True, but her suicide note, which will be available to the Coroner, if not necessarily to us, will surely give some explanation as to her state of mind?
CO, “why at 5am was the phone being answered by a foreign nurse?” Well, the shift premium is higher; her ‘foreignness’ is moot; some of One’s best friends are foreign. How about you?
Not only was the switchboard being manned by a nurse, which seems a waste, but by a nurse who found nothing odd in the idea of HM or HRH ringing up at that hour.
JM, it now appears that the poor soul hanged herself. I hope the suicide note does not give her family an unpleasant shock.
I am no longer permitted to read the Telegraph, so I read the Independent. That organ has taken this saga to extremes. Enough!
BTW, Boadicea and Bearsy, my sister-in-law has just landed in your fair city, to visit her grand child. I am still struggling to come to terms with the fact that there is an Australian in the family. 😉
Sheona, at the risk of offending Sipu (nothing new there then 🙂 ) i think the last stone is yet to be turned. Allegedly one of the three notes she left concerned her employers.