Station to give $500,000 to family of nurse in royal prank call

Sydney: An Australian radio station Tuesday pledged at least Aus$500,000 ($523,600) to help the grieving family of a nurse duped by a royal prank phone call, after coming under sustained scrutiny over the hoax.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha, who fielded the hoax call from Sydney station 2Day FM to London’s King Edward VII Hospital, was found Friday after apparently committing suicide.

The Indian-born mother-of-two put the call through to a colleague, who divulged details of the recovery of Prince William’s pregnant wife Kate from severe morning sickness.

The station initially suspended all advertising after the death but said it would resume Thursday, with all profits until the end of the year given to an “appropriate fund that will directly benefit the family of Jacintha Saldanha”.

The amount donated would be at least Aus$500,000, it said.

“We are very sorry for what has happened,” Rhys Holleran, chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo which owns the station, 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.”

In the wake of the death the company suspended all prank calls across its network and cancelled the show which ran the segment.

In an online report, the ABC’s Europe correspondent added: “Some of the British media is asking the question, well, we still don’t know who ultimately made that decision.”

Holleran has said the station called the London hospital five times to discuss what it had recorded before going to air.

Under Australian regulations, the permission of anyone bearing the brunt of a radio prank must be sought before the call can be broadcast.

But the hospital denied on Monday that anyone within its senior management or media unit were contacted.

Holleran has insisted the appropriate checks were conducted before the pre-recorded segment was broadcast, and defended the presenters in an interview Monday with Australia’s Ten Network.