A call for a more responsible media

Jacintha Saldanha, a 46-year old Konkani nurse at the King Edward VII Hospital in Britain, tragically took her own life in early December, following intense media scrutiny surrounding the circumstances of a ‘prank call’ of which she was the victim. The scandal has exposed two fundamentally flawed ways in which the media can sometimes operate – one, its obsession with the lives of celebrities, using infamy as a mechanism for generating publicity; and two, its attempts to carry out vigilante justice through an en masse attack on individuals.

Saldanha moved to Muscat from the port city of Mangalore in the Konkani region of southwest India, after gaining advanced nursing qualifications at the Father Muller’s School of Nursing. Sister Aileen Mathias, chief nursing officer at the school said, “Jacintha was a very efficient, intelligent and lively personality who had won laurels in her nursing studies.”

Saldanha then moved to Bristol more than ten years ago, where she settled with her family - and returned to India every two years or so to visit relatives. Saldanha has been laid to rest in Shirva, India.

The scandal which ended in Saldanha’s tragic demise unfolded like this: two radio jockeys from Sydney’s 104.1FM radio station, 2DayFM, made a prank call to King Edward VII Hospital in London, where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge, Kate Middleton, had recently been admitted. Mel Greig put on a fake accent, pretending to be the Queen, while Michael Christian introduced himself on the phone as Prince Charles. Greig asked, “Oh hello there, could I please speak to Kate please, my granddaughter?” After being put through to nurse Saldanha straight away, Greig enquired about Kate’s ‘little tummy bug’. Saldanha answered, “She’s sleeping at the moment. And she had an uneventful night. And sleep is good for her. As we speak, she’s been getting some fluids to rehydrate her. She was quite dehydrated when she came in. But she’s stable at the moment.”

The call was interspersed with moments of on-air incredulity from Christian, “If this has worked, it’s the easiest prank call we’ve ever made. Your (Greig’s) accent sucked by the way, I just wanted you to know.” The accents were indeed deplorable. Another staff member even yapped in the background in an effort to mimic the Queen’s famous corgis. It was mediocre radio at best.

Even before Saldanha’s subsequent suicide, news outlets across Britain were outraged by the invasion into the royal family’s privacy. There was particular ire raised when Christian continued to promote the prank on social media even after the station apologised for the stunt. However, following Saldanha’s death, the British media in particular became ferocious. Social media attacked the pair, saying: “You’ve got blood on your hands” and “Many lives ruined”.

Saldanha’s death was certainly devastating. She leaves behind a young son and daughter, as well as husband Benedict Barboza. But was it to be expected?

As poor as the prank’s taste was, the pair of radio jockeys who have become the face of the British media’s assault on the situation could not have possibly or reasonably foreseen that their actions could have resulted in the death of an individual.

Firstly, the prank call was not done live – all such stunts are pre-recorded and then vetted by legal experts. In a recent television interview given by the pair, Greig said “You prank someone, you record it, then it goes to the other departments to work out what they want to do with it.”

Southern Cross Austereo, the station’s owner, tallied this claim with their statement: “The Company has conducted a review of the process undertaken in the airing of the segment which has found that company protocols were adhered to. Several attempts were made by the production team to discuss the segment with the hospital, but with no success. The segment was referred to an internal review process which included internal legal review and authorisation was granted to broadcast.”

Most importantly though, could Saldanha’s death have conceivably been a direct result of a prank call that was by no means malicious, and was every bit as stupid as the idea from which it was born?

It seems unlikely that the call itself, even in the wake of unimaginable publicity, would of itself cause a sound-minded person to take her own life. Indeed, the hospital has stressed that it provided Saldanha with all the support she required – and she had not even discussed the prank call with her family. The royal family too, clarified that they were by no means holding Saldanha responsible for the disclosure of private medical information.

So who then is to blame?

Some media outlets always seek scapegoats – and the more sensationalist British tabloids, some of whom printed Greig’s face on the front page – are frequent culprits.

Why then, is there no proper scrutiny being made of the hospital’s process for high-profile patients? The royal family has long preferred King Edward VII hospital for its members – and the thought that the Queen would call reception to speak to her granddaughter-in-law is unfathomable. Why then, was the staff not briefed on the correct protocol for royal members? Why was Saldanha exposed and put on the spot by the receptionist who transferred the call straight to her?

Even Konkani community spokesman, James Ravi Pinto, agreed saying, “No one could have foreseen this. She must have been terribly worried about the incident even though the hospital had not reprimanded her and she wasn’t in any trouble. I think some system should have been in place at the hospital so such a call could not have got through to the ward and Jacintha would not have had to take that call, given the high-profile and sensitive nature of the patient’s condition.”

There needs to be more accountability on the part of the media, who escalated the story to much more dramatic proportions than it otherwise may have reached. The media’s obsession with ‘the big scoop’ and the big, overbearing headlines, certainly must have had at least as big a part to play in the pressure on Saldanha – if not a more profound effect on her than the call itself.

At the end of the day, the big picture is this: two young Australians were carrying out a stupid prank for a radio station which has a history of less-thanethical stunts. They made a call to a hospital fully expecting to be hung up on immediately, and suddenly found themselves with sensitive information.

They were told by people with much greater experience and expertise than them that it was all okay – the prank could go to air.

Suddenly, they are the subjects of a witch-hunt. Their faces dominate the front page of newspapers overseas. They will always have Saldanha’s death hanging over their heads, whether or not they feel it was their fault. Their careers in the industry are in jeopardy. Their show has been cancelled. They are receiving daily death threats.

The hospital, which seems to have no process in place for advising staff on how to deal with high-profile patients, meanwhile threatens legal action against the radio station. There is no scrutiny of their system.

The media continues to hype up the story, even while the devastating typhoon that claimed hundreds of lives in the Philippines slips quietly under the radar. The publicity generated from Saldanha by the media in Britain was infinitely more influential than a Sydney radio station.

Make up your own mind – does everything add up?