Ex-2DayFM DJ Mel Greig says broadcasters need to amend policies as coroner rules nurse’s death suicide
Former 2DayFM DJ Mel Grieg. Picture: Sunday Night
A coroner has ruled nurse Jacintha Saldanha committed suicide after receiving a hoax call from two Today Network DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles in 2012, but stopped short of laying fault with either her hospital or the radio network.
However, in an unusual statement made to the court in London after the inquest had concluded one of the DJs, Mel Greig, apologised to the family and said media companies should look at their procedures to prevent a similar event in the future.
After the verdict British MP Keith Vaz, who has been representing the family, hinted they could yet take legal action against Today’s parent company Southern Cross Austereo over the death.
Empathy and compassion are important components when dealing with people and how they feel.
Good on her for going to London for the inquest, however I think this was more for Mel’s benefit, and not so much for the family involved! It WAS more than what her radio partner did anyway. He has well and truly moved on from the ‘prank incident’ However, I DO recall seeing Mel’s Facebook page the day of the prank and recall her loving her ‘new found title ‘queen of champagne’ and I recall her laughing about the incident and lapping up the world media attention their prank had created, so please don’t NOW say you were uncomfortable about it Ms. Greig as clearly your Facebook statements contradicts that. Regardless, you now feel guilt and have apologised, time for you to move on too?
So it’s the radio station’s fault for allowing her and “MC” to make this call, not theirs for making it. Got it.
James R, what a misleading statement. It’s up to the station (not the DJs) to have policies and procedures in place to make sure what is broadcast meets legal guidelines. It’s the equivalent of a journalist writing a defamatory piece, and their editor choosing to run it – the editor is clearly the one at fault.
Where did Southern Cross fail its obligations? Phoning the hospital back to get permission to broadcast the call – maybe the company should have done this during business hours rather than prior to 6am. Maybe they should have delayed the broadcast until they actually received permission from both Ms Saldanha and the hospital. Neither of these failures can be attributed to Mel Greig or Michael Christian.
Southern Cross Austereo’s payment to the family is clear indication they’re aware that the failure of their policies had some causative effect, whatever their PR department chooses to say about it.
it’s one thing to make the prank call…..it’s something very different, on the part of management to decide to broadcast it, without the permission of the parties.
Cause prank calling a hospital is a real good idea in the first place mate.
The blamestorming has been ludicrous! Jokey radio phone calls have long been a mainstay of radio – in the UK as well as Australia. What happened here was an appalling tragedy, but it was impossible to predict. Really! Enough holier-than-thou “They shouldn’t have done it” tut-tutting. The BBC has often done prank calls – the radio show “Dead Ringers”, which relies on impersonations of public figures – still does it, every week. Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand did something far more blatantly offensive (as opposed to just silly), but are still popular personalities, because – despite upsetting a few people – it didn’t cause anyone’s death. Yes, it was a dumb prank – but let’s be realistic! Humour occasionally backfires – and you can rarely predict when.