MOSCOW, December 8 (RIA Novosti) – The Australian radio station whose presenters prank-called a nurse for Britain’s royal family has suspended its advertising after the nurse was suspected to have committed suicide, the Sydney Morning Herald reported on Saturday.
The move came as a response to a widespread boycott from station advertisers following the suspected suicide of Jacintha Saldanha, 46, a nurse for the royal family who reportedly fielded a prank phone call earlier this week from two presenters at the station, 2DayFM.
Saldhana, a mother of two, was found dead by police on Friday morning near the King Edward VII hospital in central London, where the pregnant Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton was being treated.
The presenters, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, have come under intense criticism for the call, in which they pretended to be Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II and were successfully connected to a duty nurse by Saldhana. In a joint decision with the station’s management, the presenters will stay off the air “until further notice,” according to an apology posted to the station’s Facebook page.
That statement attracted a flurry of angry comments, many from people who appeared to blame Greig and Christian for Saldhana’s death.
Middleton was admitted to the hospital on Monday for acute morning sickness, and was discharged on Thursday.
The presenters' prank call also raised questions over the privacy of the royal family, which itself became embroiled in a scandal earlier this year after several European tabloids published topless photos of Middleton while the Duchess was on vacation.
