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Australian prank call radio to donate profits to nurse's family
Advertisement is reflected at the entrance of the building that houses the 2Day FM radio station in Sydney December 8, 2012.
Credit: Reuters/Daniel Munoz
CANBERRA |
CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian radio station behind a prank call to a British hospital will donate its advertising revenue until the end of the year to a fund for the family of the nurse who apparently took her own life after the stunt, the company said on Tuesday.
Southern Cross Austereo, parent company of Sydney radio station 2Day FM, said it would donate all advertising revenue, with a minimum contribution of A$500,000 ($525,000), to a memorial fund for the nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, who answered the telephone at the hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife, Kate.
The company has suspended the Sydney-based announcers, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, scrapped their "Hot 30" program and suspended advertising on the station in the wake of the Saldanha's death. Southern Cross said it would resume advertising on its station from Thursday.
"It is a terrible tragedy and our thoughts continue to be with the family," Southern Cross Chief Executive Officer Rhys Holleran said in a statement.
"We hope that by contributing to a memorial fund we can help to provide the Saldanha family with the support they need at this very difficult time."
($1 = 0.9526 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by James Grubel; Editing by Robert Birsel)
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Notwithstanding this sad fact, the radio announcers in Australia are not responsibility for the English nurse’s suicide.
The media outrage in the UK is just a media hype to take pressure off their previous phone scandal worries.
The poor nurse must have had many, many other serious problems and that is so unfortunate. But to suggest she took her life over this one event surely personifies instability which her employer, the hospital obviously was not aware of. Why? What hours and under what conditions was she working? Had her husband not noticed any depression?
A prank funny stupid phone call from the other side of the world is supposed to be responsible??
Even the polititians are trying to get some reflected glory!! Oh my God!!
Yes, it is a terribly tradegy when anyone takes their life. But get real, the radio prank did not cause a sucide. The poor woman must have been sick well beforehand.
Who can we blame next? I know,”It was Santa Claus” !!!!??????
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