Prank Gone Royally Wrong‏

When the sun rose on December 5, three people on this planet did not have a clue that their lives were about to be turned over. Quite literally. Those three people were, Jacintha Saldanha, Mel Greig and Michael Christian.

Jacintha Saldanha- The ill fated nurse

When the media frenzy began over Kate Middleton’s pregnancy, it came across to the people working at Australia’s 2DayFM radio station that apart from the intense media scrutiny of the Royal House of Windsor, what was lacking was a prank call. And so it was decided that Radio DJs Mel Greig and Micheal Christian would take part in a prank call to the King Edward VII Hospital in London where Kate Middleton was admitted. They would pretend to be Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and would try to get through to Kate Middleton.  The number was dialed and the call was picked up by nurse Jacintha Saldanha, a married mother of two children. They prank callers identified themselves as the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles and inquired to know about Kate Middleton’s health. To their immense surprise, they were put through to Kate Middleton’s ward where another nurse gave them confidential details about Kate’s medical condition. The call ended and the news spread. They all laughed, Prince Charles pronounced it as a joke and the DJs shared their success with the world at large. The hospital and the nurses came under intense English media scrutiny.

Two days later, Jacnitha Saldanha, 46, wife and a mother of a daughter and a son was dead.

It has been reported that Jacintha died of shame as she might have been devastated by the outcome, which had involved the leaking out of private medical data of a globally known British Royal, but the police have yet to confirm the details.

For two days when everybody was laughing and the British press was voicing its disbelief that two people with such horrible British accentscould easily get access to a Royal’s private health info, they now turned over to the two Australian DJ’s. Some tabloids declared the two Aussies ashaving the blood of the nurse on their hands and a storm of furious tweets and hate mail deluged 2DayFM. People from around the world, especially in UK called for the DJs to step down and face inquires.  And then, after three days the two shell shocked and visibly distressed DJs, appeared for two interviews on Australian channels and apologized for the prank call.

Mel and Greg. Australian DJ's in the middle of the controversy

While it may have been a harmless prank call in the minds of Greg and Mel, it is worth noting that they were not the final authority on the prank call that was made. As they explained, it was a part of the team process and they refused to give the names of the higher ups that gave a go ahead. People are lambasting them for their prank call and nobody disagrees with it, yes, the actions were reprehensible, but to blame them altogether for the nurse’s death is going a bit too far. No one would have foreseen such an extreme reaction and the self righteous in their admirable haste to call for blood forget that they were the same people laughing at the prank five days ago.  The intense media coverage might also have contributed to Jacintha’s death.

Where once this prank was being regarded as the  best international scoop so far, it is now being regarded as being a deplorable act.

We can all safely say that the two radio presenters didn’t foresee these kinds of events unfolding and  in my opinion they are being subjected to an unfair global tirade of hate, half of who’s participants are just jumping the band wagon as is the norm in the social media and which has been all too apparent in useless trends that clutter the twittersphere and Facebook.  They already have got more punishment than they deserved and if intense media coverage was able to crumble Nurse Jacintha, how would the media feel if  their intense bombardment of accusations leveled against two little known radio presenters has an effect on them and prompted them to take any extreme measures. Yes, 2DayFM has beenguilty in the past of such pranks, and it had been served notices by Australian Authorities sans harsher penalties, it is up to the authorities to question the higher ups of the 2DayFM and the management of Southern Cross Autero Media that owns the radio channel. On the other hand the media (especially the British media), reporting on the incident should take a balanced approach ( especially after the Leveson Report). An innocent life has already been taken, let us not scar the remaining ones. It is time to review practices and code of conduct rather than targeting individuals to increase ratings.

Note: This blog was also published in Express Tribune: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/15126/kate-middletons-pregnancy-and-a-prank-gone-royally-wrong/