Tragic 2DAYFM prank call

oman

oman

Well-known member
Did anyone hear about this in the news - http://www.smh.com.au/national/universal-uproar-2day-fm-in-eye-of-storm-20121208-2b2cm.html

The radio industry is in the eye of a global storm, with furious British politicians demanding Australian authorities punish 2Day FM over the royal prank phone call tragedy.

British media are united in condemnation of the hoax call that came before the suicide of British nurse Jacintha Saldanha, as 2Day FM suspended all advertising to head off a mass exodus of sponsors.

Ms Saldanha, 46, took her own life after being duped into forwarding a phone call from 2Day FM presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian – pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles – through to the London hospital ward of the recovering Duchess of Cambridge.
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It extremely sad to hear that someone would claim their life over what was originally set out to be a humourous prank call.

Thoughts or opinions?
 
I find it unlikely that anyone would take their life for simply being duped into forwarding a phone call. Perhaps things will become clearer after the inquest. It's certainly a tragic event and a wakeup call for anyone wishing to perpetrate a hoax in the name of entertainment but I'm not convinced that the two events are linked and certainly not in the way they are being reported i.e. suicide.
 
I was shocked when this pinged up on my phone while I was out the other day.

Incredibly sad. I have deepest sympathy for Jacintha's family.
 
That call got in at 5:30 in the morning. The usual recepionist wasn't there, so the call was answered by a nurse working her night shift (her). She showed no suspicion at all and forwarded the call to the nurse in charge. It took unusually long to transfer the call, so I asume that she instructed the nurse in charge about the caller. Because that other nurse also showed no signs of suspicion, but several signs of nerviness.

We all can imagine that she has been desciplined and I also can imagine that several people mocked her about that. She is not the first person to kill herself after being mocked.

The real persons to blame are the people mocking her about her naivety.
 
Slavik said:
Depending on the sources you read the Royal family actualy generate between 40 and 160 million pounds profit per year for the treasury.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_British_Royal_Family
it is necessary to drink a bottle of vodka to be able to sort out the family finances.
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But still, did this woman killed herself if she had a sick joke with Elton John, even if she was ridiculed after that?
 
De Obertei said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_British_Royal_Family
it is necessary to drink a bottle of vodka to be able to sort out the family finances.
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But still, did this woman killed herself if she had a sick joke with Elton John, even if she was ridiculed after that?
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It may cost ~150M a year to run + protect the Royal Family, however their estate draws in upwards of 200M a year in revenues (which gets paid back to the treasury). Add in the massive amount of tourism also they generate. The Royal family generate huge levels of income for the UK.
 
We should not have to remove the monarchy. Then, Peterhof and the Amber Room could generate more income.)))
And if the family moderate their appetites, the treasury could leave more money for other needs. It's too expensive symbol. The red double-decker bus is cheaper.
 
HWS said:
We all can imagine that she has been desciplined and I also can imagine that several people mocked her about that. She is not the first person to kill herself after being mocked.

The real persons to blame are the people mocking her about her naivety.
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Spot on.
 
I've read the article and I'm still a bit confused. The nurse forwarded a phone call to the hospital... And then killed herself? And it seems like these radio DJs were undergoing psychological troubles, too.
 
HWS said:
We all can imagine that she has been desciplined
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The hospital were quite clear to stress that no-one was discipline and also the Royal Family made no complaint either.

The BBC understands Mrs Saldanha had not been suspended or disciplined by the hospital. "The hospital had been supporting her throughout this difficult time."
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Ringing a hospital and pretending to be someone else, to get information which is probably private, is just wrong, whether the motive is a "prank" or not.

It's so incredibly sad - our nurses in the UK are amazing people who do an incredible job.
 
A person's suicide can generally only be blamed on one person ==> the person with the lethal weapon pointed to her temple, the bottle of sleeping pills poured down her throat, the razor blades scraping their way through her arm veins, etc....

Such a sad situation really. But blaming the "pranksters" is sorta foolish imo. This Saldahna woman obviously had issues prior to the prank. IDK - Kinda sad - but are we blaming the wrong people? Simply wanting someone else to be responsible for her suicide...?

J.
 
Very sad events, here is what I said on FB earlier about it, will just repeat it here.

Prank calls are about the lowest form of Frat boy humour out there, at best they are tacky and appalling, laughing at people, violating personal space or just plain harassment. I hate them and have not listened to any radio station that engages in such moronic behaviour for a very long time. This latest event is a tragedy, however the idiots who perpetrated the prank call could not have foreseen that this poor lady was so very fragile, they could however have seen that it would cause distress at the very least. We should all be a little more careful about how we treat others, as you don't ever know how close someone is to breaking point and perhaps it is time people stopped rewarding such stupid behaviour by listening to stations that engage in it.
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There was obviously a lot more going on in this poor woman's life, she didn't just take her life over this moment of misjudgement I am sure. Very sad for her family, suicide is a very selfish option, as someone who had a immediate family member seriously attempt suicide, I can tell you that it is very hard for those around that person to cope with the fact, and it is very easy to want to blame external sources.
 
We've been talking about this incident a lot in the security community. We classified this as a security incident since the nurse who picked up the phone was a victim of pretexting and social engineering. It happens much more often than what appears on the news, except since it is the royal couple, it gained a lot more attention.

I personally do a lot of social engineering on client engagements during security risk assessments.

I know the public is crucifying the Australian radio show, but shouldn't some of that criticism be directed at the hospital as well? It is quite clear that training against pretexting and social engineering isn't occurring at all levels but occurring at select levels.
 
While her suicide is sad, there has to be more to the story. Either she had been battling major depression and this was the final "cherry" on top or she had felt, in that moment of confusion, that this was way worse than what it really is and didn't find a way out.

I am sure most of us have prank called someone, I know I have. If the prank call the Australian radio hosts had started was harassing in nature, such as belittling the woman or hateful, I could understand. This situation is very confusing to those of us who are not "in the know". Still it is sad that someone took their life without looking for help first.
 
The story so far doesn't make much sense to me, this can't be a reason for suicide unless it's the straw that broke the camel's back. People obviously shouldn't look to blame a few individuals who were just doing their job with respect for the law.
 
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