High Court rules Sydney DJs broke the law with prank call

You might recall an incident in 2012 where two Sydney DJs made a hoax call to a London hospital hosting a pregnant Duchess of Cambridge, with said DJs pretending to be the Queen and Prince Charles, and one nurse believing it enough to put the call through to Kate’s ward.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was so embarrassed by the incident – which received global international coverage – three days later she took her own life, leaving a suicide note that referenced the DJs as a main source of her grief.

The High Court has finally ruled that 2DayFM DJs, Michael Christian and Mel Greig, had indeed broken the law when making that prank call, during which the presenters asked for private information about the Duchess of Cambridge, but failed to obtain consent from hospital staff to air the recording. Ergo the illegality: basically, you need a party’s permission to record anything they say and to air any legally binding information they have passed on to you.

The unanimous decision by the court now paves the way for a major penalty against the station.

Since the incident, 2DayFM has conveyed its condolences, but has not accepted any blame for Ms Saldanha’s death. It has, however, donated $500,000 to a trust fund for Saldanha’s family for them to “rebuild their lives”.  Michael Mastess