oobu24:
Aren't there FCC rules that the DJs should have followed? I thought you must tell a person when they are being taped or on a live broadcast. That may be what they will get charged with.
One damning aspect of this unfolding is that this was not a spontaneous live event that was simply unwise. The call was pre-recorded before broadcast, passed to the station legal team before transmission and passed for broadcast. So in considering any sanctions, the Australian Broadcast Standards Authority will not accept any station claim that this hoax call was the action of a pair of maverick rogue broadcasters. One phrase being bandied around for the cause of the tragic action taken by Jacintha Saldanha is "gross humiliation" - everything from internal hospital tut-tuts amongst peers and immediate line managers to the international hue and cry arising from the news. Another ugly aspect was the crowing hi-five-ing from the presenters and the station over the hoax with tweets and banner headlines on the station web-site over what an easy hit it was and how gullible the "hospital" - so essentially Jacintha - was in believing their fake royal accents. All that triumphalist media has been cleared from the net now - after the news of the death broke. I return to my point I personally loathe all this type of personal abuse in the name of humour - it overtakes the crass stunt that Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand pulled that led to their fall from grace and loss of BBC contracts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Russell_Brand_Show_prank_telephone_calls_row That led to a £150,000 fine by the UK Broadcast Standards Agency OFCOM and I hope similar censure will follow this in Australia. I also sincerely hope that either legal - or preferably voluntary - action ensures a significantly large compensation settlement is made to Jacintha's family. It doesn't matter what the pre-event condition of Jacintha's emotional stability was - as a base reference work as a night nurse is exhausting and tiring, esp when also meeting the demands of a young family, de-facto. The consequences of any hoax call upon the hoaxee is the responsibility of the hoaxer. Claims already heard from the radio station that this outcome "couldn't be foreseen or planned for" do not stand and they must face significant censure for the call in the first place let alone the tragic outcome. I'm pleased to hear that advertisers that supported the radio station are cancelling contracts in droves cutting off the station's commercial life-blood even before the independent review of their conduct. Martin