The London hospital that treated Prince William’s wife Catherine has condemned the Australian radio station whose hoax call apparently led to a nurse’s suicide, calling the stunt “appalling.”
Britain has reacted with horror to the death of mother-of-two Jacintha Saldanha, 46, who is believed to have taken her own life after she was duped by two Australian radio presenters seeking news on Kate’s pregnancy.
Saldanha was found dead on Friday, days after answering a call to the hospital from hosts at Sydney’s 2Day FM radio posing as Queen Elizabeth II and William’s father, Prince Charles.
Photo: AFP
She had put them through to a colleague who then divulged details of Kate’s recovery from severe morning sickness.
The nurse’s death has triggered a global wave of anger at the Australian presenters behind the hoax, Mel Greig and Michael Christian.
Flowers were placed on Saturday outside the nurses’ accommodation block where Saldanha’s body was discovered.
There was no receptionist on duty at 5:30am on Tuesday when Greig and Christian called the private King Edward VII’s Hospital where Kate was being treated, and Saldanha had answered the telephone.
On Saturday, hospital chairman Lord Simon Glenarthur wrote to Max Moore-Wilton, chairman of broadcasting group Southern Cross Austereo, which owns 2Day FM, to protest “in the strongest possible terms” about the hoax.
“It was extremely foolish of your presenters even to consider trying to lie their way through to one of our patients, let alone actually make the call,” he wrote. “Then to discover that, not only had this happened, but that the call had been pre-recorded and the decision to transmit approved by your station’s management, was truly appalling. The immediate consequence of these premeditated and ill-considered actions was the humiliation of two dedicated and caring nurses who were simply doing their job tending to their patients. The longer-term consequence has been reported around the world and is, frankly, tragic beyond words.”
At the family home in Bristol, England, relatives and friends gathered round to comfort Saldanha’s husband Benedict Barboza and the couple’s son and daughter, aged 14 and 16.
Reports said the family had moved from India about a decade ago.
In a message posted on his Facebook page, Barboza reportedly wrote: “I am devastated with the tragic loss of my beloved wife Jacintha in tragic circumstances, She will be laid to rest in Shirva, India.”
Neighbor Mary Atwell, 56, said: “She was a lovely, lovely person who always spoke to you when you saw her. You could always see that she was very dedicated to her job.
“Both DJs should be sacked, they should never have been allowed to do what they did,” she added. “She would be alive today if they hadn’t have made that call.”
Several British newspapers reported that Greig and Christian face questioning from British police.
“Officers have been in touch with Australian authorities, but we’re not prepared to discuss it any further than that,” a Scotland Yard spokesman said.
Southern Cross Austereo chief executive Rhys Holleran said the pair would be taken off-air until further notice, “out of respect.”
“This is a tragic event that could not have been reasonably foreseen and we’re deeply saddened by it,” Holleran said, adding that the presenters who made the hoax call were “shattered” by the news and were undergoing counseling.
However, he also said he did not believe the station had broken the law.
The British press condemned the hoax yesterday, while Australian media said it was not the time for “hysterical finger-pointing.”
“Radio hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian did not kill British nurse Jacintha Saldanha,” Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said, hitting out at the “predictable British media frenzy.”
Meanwhile, Jenny McCartney, a columnist for Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, blamed the foreign media for the worst invasions of William and Kate’s privacy in recent months, including the publication of topless photos of Kate in a French magazine.
“This most recent incident, one must hope, might come as an international wake-up call to back off,” she wrote.
The widespread shock at Saldanha’s death was in a sharp contrast to the excitement that greeted Monday’s announcement of Kate’s first pregnancy.
The baby will be third in line to the British throne.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in