MUMBAI: Australian DJ Michael Christian whose prank call to the hospital that the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated in, and that was subsequently linked to a nurse’s suicide, has been awarded.
Southern Cross Austereo gave the ‘Top Jock’ to Christian in the internal competition that recognizes the company’s ‘best in the land’, winning a trip to Los Angeles. The award has whipped up public outrage with Australia’s national communications minister Stephen Conroy telling a Melbourne radio station: “To be seen to be rewarding people so soon after such an event, I think, is just in bad taste.”
The station promised to donate advertising revenue to a fund for Saldanha’s family.
Christian and his co-presenter Mel Greig made the prank call to the King Edward VII Hospital in London when they were treating the Duchess of Cambridge for severe morning sickness in December 2012. As part of the call on the Hot30 Countdown programme, aired on Sydney’s 2Day FM, the pair pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles, and asked to be put through to the ward.
A nurse, Jacintha Saldanha, put the call through to a colleague, who disclosed some details of the duchess’s condition.
Saldanha was found hanged in her flat days after the call. In her suicide note, Saldanha wrote: “Please accept my apologies. I am truly sorry. Thank you for all your support. I hold the radio Australians Mel Greig and Michael Christian responsible for this act. Please make them pay my mortgage. I am sorry. Jacintha.”
Scotland Yard contacted New South Wales police as part of investigation into Saldanha’s death, but prosecutors announced in February that no charges would be brought against Christian or Greig.
“Regardless of all that’s happened in the past few months, I’m still at the top of my game. It felt good to see my name at the top of the final leader board,” Christian said in a statement.