Australian media watchdog finds 2Day FM guilty of acting illegally for royal hoax call
An interim report by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has found radio station 2Day FM guilty of acting illegally, following the suicide of nurse Jacintha Saldanha after a prank phone call.
Saldanha committed suicide on Friday 7 December, days after she answered the prank call from two DJs - Mel Greig and Michael Christian - who pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles asking after the Duchess of Cambridge, and passed the call onto a colleague.
The report found the station guilty acting illegally by recording and broadcasting a conversation without the consent of the hospital where Saldanha worked.
The station’s owner, Southern Cross Media Group, claimed the media watchdog has no right to determine whether the station committed a crime.
2Day FM's barrister, Bruce McClintock SC, said: "The courts are the place, and the only place, where determination of criminal guilt can be made," as he demanded that the ACMA be permanently restrained from finding the station committed a criminal offence or was in breach of its licence.
At the time, it was ruled that the two presenters were unlikely to face charges in the UK over the suicide.