Mod Note: See Post #71 Nurse in Kate radio prank takes her own life

Btr

Earlier this week, in the name of being funny, Australian radio show host made a prank call to the hospital where Kate Middleton was. A nurse put them through and now she has taken her own life following reaction to the story. RIP and let's hope it puts an end to infantile prank calls on all radio stations . A tragic day for the nurse's friends and family and a black day for broadcasting

Technocentral

Terrible story but I'd say its more a black day for that particular type of tabloid broadcasting than for broadcasting in general, I mostly listen to responsible stations like Radio 4 , Rte 1 and NPR with BBC6 for music I never here any of that bull****.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

Myrddin

Is this the nurse who answered the initial call, or the one that gave out the info? Shocking to hear she took her own life!

Fresh Pots

Awful sad. R.I.P.

Tayla

How does anyone know her reasons for doing what she did? That's pure speculation and considering the prank call was an intrusion of someones privacy it is absolutely disgusting that the news outlets think it is ok to report on this womans death in such an exploitative way.

MrJoeSoap

EnterNow wrote: »

Is this the nurse who answered the initial call, or the one that gave out the info? Shocking to hear she took her own life!

Has been reported as both, but does now look like it is the lady who passed the initial call through.

Technocentral

IrishFeeney92 wrote: »

Cant see why the DJs are getting the blame, they are being abused on twitter and have had to close their accounts. People just looking for somebody to blame I suppose

What kind of decent person thinks ringing hospitals like this is a appropriate source of humour? I despise the Royalty but everyone deserves some dignity and privacy. They and all responsible for their show should be fired if not lynched.

MrJoeSoap

IrishFeeney92 wrote: »

Cant see why the DJs are getting the blame, they are being abused on twitter and have had to close their accounts. People just looking for somebody to blame I suppose

I can't see how anybody but the DJ's would be to blame. A woman is going about her job, one that she has no doubt worked incredibly hard to get, and all of a sudden her brief mistake (if you would call it that) is at the centre of a worldwide shitstorm.

They made the call, trying to extract some private medical information for some bizarre reason, and all of a sudden her job is on the line and her mental state is all over the place.

Gutter journalism at it's absolute worst.

Technocentral

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

I can't see how anybody but the DJ's would be to blame. A woman is going about her job, one that she has no doubt worked incredibly hard to get, and all of a sudden her brief mistake (if you would call it that) is at the centre of a worldwide shitstorm.

They made the call, trying to extract some private medical information for some bizarre reason, and all of a sudden her job is on the line and her mental state is all over the place.

Gutter journalism at it's absolute worst.

I was shocked when I first heard the initial story about them ringing a hospital, maybe ringing Claridges or a shop etc pretending to be Royalty has some slightly humorous overtones but getting your kicks from ringing hospitals? What if she had being in with a miscarriage and even not its still scumbag behavior.

GSF

I thought stations had to get consent forms from people before putting them on air, hence why these prank calls are usually pre-recorded days in advance? Pretty sure that would be the case for Irish radio stations. Does it fly out the window if they are pranking someone famous (not that the nurse was)?

Myrddin

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Has been reported as both, but does now look like it is the lady who passed the initial call through.

Dreadful sad, thoughts with her family & friends

MrJoeSoap

GSF wrote: »

I thought stations had to get consent forms from people before putting them on air, hence why these prank calls are usually pre-recorded days in advance? Pretty sure that would be the case for Irish radio stations. Does it fly out the window if they are pranking someone famous (not that the nurse was)?

Apparently, the radio industry's code of practice has a privacy clause, which states:

"In the preparation and presentation of current affairs programs a licensee must ensure it does not use material relating to a person's personal or private affairs, or which invades an individual's privacy, unless there is a public interest in broadcasting such information."

Was there a public interest in broadcasting this? Highly debatable.

GSF

MrJoeSoap wrote: »

Apparently, the radio industry's code of practice has a privacy clause, which states:

"In the preparation and presentation of current affairs programs a licensee must ensure it does not use material relating to a person's personal or private affairs, or which invades an individual's privacy, unless there is a public interest in broadcasting such information."

Was there a public interest in broadcasting this? Highly debatable.

This surely would have been deemed an entertainment segment - does it mean that people can be put on air without their consent if there is an entertainment value to the material?

msg11

No doubt the production team and on air staff of that show that broadcast the 'humor' have a lot to answer for here. Why you would want to broadcast information on anybody that's in hospital in a what could be a serious situation as humor.

I can't really understand why the nurse killed herself, maybe there's more to this than just the 'prank' call, seems seriously over the top.

Regardless of what I think , my thoughts are with her loves ones and that radio station has a lot to answer for in relation to the content it broadcasted as 'humor'

heybaby

An awful and tragic situation, no doubt. The dj's in question according to 2DayFM's facebook page have been taken off air and rightly so, what happens in the long run is difficult to say, personally I'd say they'll be shipped out of 2Dayfm purely because of the stigma now associated with them, they can hardly continue to host their 'zaney', 'irreverent' show in the knowledge that their prank contributed however directly or indirectly to someones death. There will be massive pressure from government sources both in the UK and Australia on the station to be seen to do the decent thing, because a member of the royal family is involved. Personally I think 'prank' phone calls are a rubbish jaded format , they were being done decades ago, time for some fresh ideas that dont involve ritual humiliation particularly without the subjects consent. No one can know the state of mind of the poor nurse in question, needless to say may she rest in peace.

GSF

TodayFM might be regretting copying that name tonight perhaps?

gavindowd

GSF wrote: »

TodayFM might be regretting copying that name tonight perhaps?

I dont think that they'll be allowed say the name of the station in the media

NIMAN

How many people who are outraged tonight by these 2 DJs have laughed themselves at prank calls in the past?

And does this mean we have seen the end of the prank call?

Althoght this is a very sad story, I think it would be harsh for someone to be hounded because of a prank. We have all played pranks on people, did they know that this woman would have taken her own life? It seems a very extreme thing to do, perhaps she was already suffering under other problems and this was just a tipping point.

It will be sad if comedians have to stop being funny in case people get offended and kill themselves.

MrJoeSoap

NIMAN wrote: »

How many people who are outraged tonight by these 2 DJs have laughed themselves at prank calls in the past?

And does this mean we have seen the end of the prank call?

Althoght this is a very sad story, I think it would be harsh for someone to be hounded because of a prank. We have all played pranks on people, did they know that this woman would have taken her own life? It seems a very extreme thing to do, perhaps she was already suffering under other problems and this was just a tipping point.

It will be sad if comedians have to stop being funny in case people get offended and kill themselves.

As I said in the AH thread, a good prank is one that has all parties laughing at the end of it. There's no way that these two DJ's could ever have thought the staff (whose jobs would be at risk if/when the prank worked) would have found it funny.

NIMAN

But do you not think that this false rage that the whole world drums up in cases like this are only the Facebook and Twitter brigade who gets annoyed about anything and can themselves ruin people?

The venom out there now for these DJs is shocking. What if they kill themselves next? Who do we attack then?

L1011

Hopefully, if anything good comes of this, it stops other DJs doing the generally utterly crap "funny prank calls" that a number of the poorer ones try doing.

zom

GSF wrote: »

This surely would have been deemed an entertainment segment - does it mean that people can be put on air without their consent if there is an entertainment value to the material?

Can we call it "public interest" ?? Oh Good, how far from normality we are! Where we lost all of our common sense??

smurfs5

A truly tragic and deeply sad story. Such a waste of a life. Thoughts go out to her friends and family. I cannot understand how she became so unstable in the last few days that she took her own life. Shocking.

A lot of people seem to be taking this as an opportunity to ensure prank calls are never made again. This is an example of when they are taken too far. Obviously, Mel Greig and Michael Christian didn't think it would come to this and IMO, they are being given undue criticism for the nurse's decision to commit suicide. At first, I saw the funny side of it but they know now that they should never have made that call. Prank calls can be funny when done well (see Scott Mills) but they can be awful radio at the other end of the scale. I didn't think Mel and MC's call was particularly bad and there was no malice in their call but I don't know what they were trying to achieve. I cannot believe it has come to this. It would have been forgotten about by Monday. May the nurse rest in peace.

Cookie Policy

All the media news bulletins I've heard haven't mentioned the name of the station - just in case it was interpreted the wrong way. Online media have given the name of 2DayFM. Nevertheless this is very tragic, this may hush down Dave O'Connor on iRadio. RIP

P. Breathnach

I don't think it is appropriate for us to discuss the mental state of somebody who seems to have taken her own life.

Let's look at the issue of the prank call. An effort was made to compromise the privacy of a well-known woman who was in hospital. This involved seeking to get a medical professional to breach her obligation to maintain patient confidentiality. To what end? An overriding public interest? No: a cheap laugh.

Marian Finucane played an excerpt from a subsequent broadcast involving the two broadcasters involved where it was evident that they saw nothing wrong in what they did.

The boundaries of what is considered acceptable broadcasting need to be more clearly delineated.

goose2005

P. Breathnach wrote: »

I don't think it is appropriate for us to discuss the mental state of somebody who seems to have taken her own life.

Let's look at the issue of the prank call. An effort was made to compromise the privacy of a well-known woman who was in hospital. This involved seeking to get a medical professional to breach her obligation to maintain patient confidentiality. To what end? An overriding public interest? No: a cheap laugh.

Marian Finucane played an excerpt from a subsequent broadcast involving the two broadcasters involved where it was evident that they saw nothing wrong in what they did.

The boundaries of what is considered acceptable broadcasting need to be more clearly delineated.

It was a fairly innocent prank, they didn't even try very hard to be convincing and I doubt they expected to get through

GSF

goose2005 wrote: »

It was a fairly innocent prank, they didn't even try very hard to be convincing and I doubt they expected to get through

It's not really a nurse's job at 5.30am to be screening for crank callers is it? Probably had 101 better things to be doing. Besides as a non native English speaker she may not exactly have been acute to the quality of the accent, even if she hadn't been working a long night shift previously. From the comments of her friends she was a shy and introverted person and coming from a non English background may have accentuated this. I'm sure the radio station can show that they considered all these factors in a risk assessment before broadcasting?

Remember it is the radio station that has the duty of care to those it involves in its programming. It is nobody else's responsibility.

RainyDay

GSF wrote: »

It's not really a nurse's job at 5.30am to be screening for crank callers is it? Probably had 101 better things to be doing. Besides as a non native English speaker she may not exactly have been acute to the quality of the accent, even if she hadn't been working a long night shift previously. From the comments of her friends she was a shy and introverted person and coming from a non English background may have accentuated this. I'm sure the radio station can show that they considered all these factors in a risk assessment before broadcasting?

Remember it is the radio station that has the duty of care to those it involves in its programming. It is nobody else's responsibility.

The hospital most certainly had a responsibility to prepare its staff. It is was completely foreseeable that they would have callers probing for information. There should have been a clear protocol for how to handle any such calls, regardless of who claimed to be on the other end of the line. If the hospital didn't train their staff, they could be badly exposed.

Tombo2001

CEO of the radio station saying the djs "didnt do anything illegal".....and "nobody could have foreseen the consequences" of their actions....

What a ponce, adding insult to injury.

indough

couldn't foresee the suicide of course, but they knew it could likely mean curtains for someone's career. in return they should lose their own, thats only fair. but after that statement i hope the entire station goes under tbh

P. Breathnach

goose2005 wrote: »

It was a fairly innocent prank...

No it was not. It involved a pointless invasion of one person's privacy and an effort to subvert another person's professional integrity.

redtelephone

P. Breathnach wrote: »

No it was not. It involved a pointless invasion of one person's privacy and an effort to subvert another person's professional integrity.

I fully agree. I look forward to the day when a guilty radio station is taken to the cleaners by a victim of one of these so-called prank calls. It's the humiliation of people for amusement and in ths case when the perpetrators tried to justify their actions by saying "we never thought we'd get through" it only added to that poor woman's suffering.

Cookie Policy

Just heard on the news the station is to resume normal programming again tomorrow, having played back to back music since. Not yet confirmed if the DJs in question will return to their positions.

DipStick McSwindler

This post has been deleted.

NIMAN

redtelephone wrote: »

I fully agree. I look forward to the day when a guilty radio station is taken to the cleaners by a victim of one of these so-called prank calls. It's the humiliation of people for amusement and in ths case when the perpetrators tried to justify their actions by saying "we never thought we'd get through" it only added to that poor woman's suffering.

What would you take a prank caller to court for though?
What law would they have broken?
Is there a law against practical jokes?

GSF

NIMAN wrote: »

What would you take a prank caller to court for though?
What law would they have broken?
Is there a law against practical jokes?

Certainly pretexting is illegal in many countries - obtaining confidential records and information by deception

NIMAN

But most don't get information, they are just wind-ups, and can't see many standing up in court.

P. Breathnach

NIMAN wrote: »

But most don't get information, they are just wind-ups, and can't see many standing up in court.

This thread is based on one particular call which did involve using deception in an effort to get confidential information.

It's disingenuous to shelter it in among other prank calls that did not involve such behaviour.

land lover

What a sad loss

Btr

redtelephone wrote: »

I fully agree. I look forward to the day when a guilty radio station is taken to the cleaners by a victim of one of these so-called prank calls. It's the humiliation of people for amusement and in ths case when the perpetrators tried to justify their actions by saying "we never thought we'd get through" it only added to that poor woman's suffering.

Lets be clear, what the station did was wrong. Thy shouldnt have done it. Equally, some airheads in the industry need to understand that most of these calls are not funny and havent been for many years if ever. As for court cases, methinks there was at least the threat of legal action against a national station in this country some years back over a wind-up call.

wrbedzinski

very today!

tbh

Btr wrote: »

Lets be clear, what the station did was wrong. Thy shouldnt have done it. Equally, some airheads in the industry need to understand that most of these calls are not funny and havent been for many years if ever. As for court cases, methinks there was at least the threat of legal action against a national station in this country some years back over a wind-up call.

As far as I remember, that involved Simon Young, who told a guy (details are fierce hazy in my head) that he had taken the slates off his roof and wouldn't be able to put them back until after Christmas. Yer man on the receiving end went bananas and hung up the phone before he could be told it was prank call, and rushed home.

In regards to this case - there are a couple of things that need to be taken into consideration.

The first question is: Who was the victim of the prank phone call? and the answer is, the two nurses that were featured. This wasn't a prank on Kate or Will - they didn't even know it was happening, and the fact that information was about Kate is incidental to the prank. The nurse wasn't even in a position to fight back - it's 5:30 in the morning and someone claiming to be the queen rings a hospital treating her grandaughter in law - chances are I wouldn't have risked MY job saying "eh, are you really the queen?"

Second question, kinda related to the first, is Who was the butt of the joke? The DJs said they were expecting to be hung up on straight away. Remember - this was a pre-record. Surely to god someone in there should have said "Ok, we got through, do we really still want to broadcast this?"

Because, by broadcasting it, what they said was "Look how dumb these two nurses were, that we could ring this hospital with these crazy accents, and trick them into thinking we were the queen"

Neither of the nurses were in on the joke. Neither of them, presumably, saw the funny side of it (no permission to broadcast was given by them). So the radio station should have said "You know what - they made an honest mistake, it didn't go the way we thought it would, so lets just bin it". Instead, they held those two nurses up to ridicule in the worlds media .

Now fair enough, the two DJs seem distraught and they couldn't really be expected to think that one of the nurses would kill herself, but what *did* they expect would happen to the two nurses? That they would be ashamed? Embarrassed? Humiliated? Would that have been ok?

Trick of the Tail

I don't see how what the station did was wrong at all. It was a silly, only mildly amusing prank call.

There's no way the presenters could have foreseen that the nurse would subsequently self-harm.

The best risk assessment in the world wouldn't have predicted that.

All that nurse did was answer the phone and immediately transfer the call. She subsequently received a lot of abuse for doing so, which may have contributed to her bad feelings. The second nurse that answered the call gave out loads on information she shouldn't have - nothing has been said about her.

If anyone was at fault there it was the hospital for not having decent security procedures, and for not ensuring the nurse was ok after the media furore started.

Those young presenters have been scapegoated, and INTENTIONALLY made to feel bad, when even if we accept the tenuous suggestion that their call affected the nurse, it was entirely unintentional.

I feel sorry for them.

A.

withless

She put the call through without asking any questions.

The nature of the call doesn't matter.

GSF

alinton wrote: »

I don't see how what the station did was wrong at all.

By their own admission, they tried 5 times to get permission to broadcast from the hospital. When they couldnt, they just broadcast it anyway.

Which tells you they knew that what they were doing needed clearance, but the desire for an exclusive trumped their compliance obligations.

Trick of the Tail

But the presenters didn't make the de3cision to broadcast it, their legal advisors and boss did.

Besides, STILL no-one could, in a million years, foreseen what tragically happened.

A.

GSF

alinton wrote: »

Besides, STILL no-one could, in a million years, foreseen what tragically happened.

A.

Did they even for a minute try to anticipate what COULD happen? Hospital employees losing their job perhaps. Easily forseeable.

tbh

alinton wrote: »

But the presenters didn't make the de3cision to broadcast it, their legal advisors and boss did.

Besides, STILL no-one could, in a million years, foreseen what tragically happened.

A.

of course they couldn't expect that she might kill herself. But they should have realized how embarrassing it could be for her.

Can you tell me what she did to deserve to be embarrassed like that? You might, of course, say that she should have just gotten over it, that it wasn't such a big deal.

But surely it can't be too much to expect that the radio station would give the nurse the choice of playing it or not - some people might say "ah yeah it's funny, go ahead". This nurse obviously wouldn't have - and, given she's a private citizen who was just doing her job - shouldn't she have been given the choice

P. Breathnach

alinton wrote: »

But the presenters didn't make the de3cision to broadcast it, their legal advisors and boss did....

So now you move from a claim of the station not having done anything wrong to a claim that the presenters did nothing wrong.

So you believe it is not wrong to phone a hospital, pass yourself off as a family connection of a patient, and ask for a report on the patient's condition? And that the wrong is not compounded by doing it so that the conversation might be published?

Trick of the Tail

Embarrassed? She picked up a phone in passing, heard someone ask for 'Kate', and said 'hang on please'. That was the extent of her involvement.

The nurse they got put through to gave out far more information, is far more involved yet she still lives.

Someone with a very bad accent was on the phone playing a practical joke. By their very nature, practical jokes rely on someone being embarrassed. Everyone who has ever been caught on a candid camera show was embarrassed.

You're going to say that she wasn't asked permission for it to be broadcast - true and that probably should have happened. But the hospital didn't respond to requests from the radio station, and she didn't say her name anyway so who would they have asked?

Nope, I'm utterly convinced that the presenters did nothing wrong. No-one could have foreseen her tragic demise. Their legal advisors and their boss, who has years of radio experience, didn't and they saw it fit to broadcast.

They are being made scapegoats of and I feel very sorry for them.

They unintentionally and inadvertently set events on motion which for yet unknown reasons MAY HAVE (important) contributed to that nurse's death.

It is not right to INTENTIONALLY heap abuse and blame upon them, with the specific intention of making them feel culpable, guilty, and probably, awful.

A.