More details about Kate Middleton Hoax Call

After reading about the Kate Middleton Hoax Call that was posted in the previous entry, I decided to do more research about this issue because I wanted to know more about the criminal charges for airing the private conversation.

As far as consequential action for airing the confidential information about Kate Middleton's conditions while in the hospital, the DJ's were fired from the radio show and the radio show was entirely canceled.  Although I feel it was right to have consequences for their actions, I still can't get past the idea that the DJ's are the only ones that have prison time on the line....Aren't the program producer, program manager and station manager also at fault for the aired segment since they were the one's who granted permission to the DJ's to go through with the prank call? 

Also, there is uncertainty whether the radio station 2DayFM or its parent company Southern Cross Austereo should take responsibility for airing the call; neither station has taken the blame.  The CEO made a statement to the press after Jacintha Saldanha had committed suicide after the prank phone call.  His statement clarified that Southern Cross Austereo called the hospital a total of five times before the segment started in order to receive permission to air the prank over the radio.  The hospital did not answer or return any of the phone calls and claims there are no records for these attempts.  In addition, the article notes that the legal aspect of this unfortunate event lies on whether a reasonable person would consider attempts for permission, granted permission.  According to the privacy law expert that was mentioned in the article, these attempts will not provide an adequate defense.

Austereo has repeatedly claimed that airing the phone call did not violate any laws and that the company did its research prior to conducting the segment by undergoing a thorough internal legal review before the segment was broadcasted.  Mark Pearson, a media law expert that commented about this story said that all the parties involved with the segment had to grant permission to have the material air on the radio show in order to not break the law.  Again, we run into the question of whether a reasonable person would view the attempted phone calls as sufficient permission from the hospital.

The legal issues surrounding this story are continuing to be investigated.  Since there was intense legal review prior to this segment taking place and the company attempted to seek permission from the hospital five different times, it only seems like they knew that something bad could come out of this segment.  Unfortunately for radio station 2DayFM, this prank has cost a person's life.  Police have still not disclosed the cause of Jacintha Saldanha's death but it is speculated that it was related to stress from the prank call. 


More information can be found at this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/11/2day-fm-kate-middleton-illegal_n_2275139.html