Posts for Tag: Southern Cross Austereo station

Nurse prank call report gets the green light

Australia : The High Court has given the green light to media watchdog the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to publish a controversial report into the prank call by two Today’s Hit Network DJs which led to the suicide of a British nurse.

Via MumBRELLA

Today’s unanimous ruling could allow the ACMA to take the Southern Cross Austereo station off-air as punishment for broadcasting the December 2012 prank call which saw hosts Mel Greig and Michael ‘MC’ Christian, who were impersonating Prince Charles and The Queen, put through to the ward where the then pregnant Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for acute morning sickness.

Jacintha Saldanha, the nurse who put the call through to the ward, took her own life days later.

Today’s decision comes six months after the ACMA was given leave to appeal a Federal Court decision that the media authority had overstepped its powers acting as “accuser and fact finder” in creating the report, which is believed to state the station breached the NSW Surveillance Devices Act by airing the secretly recorded call without seeking permission from the nurse or hospital.