Why Blaming 2Day FM and its Radio Hosts is Reactionary and Undeserved

Both the act of suicide itself and its discussion remain, understandably, one of contemporary society's most decisive and controversial taboos. No other act denotes such tragedy and anguish, while inflicting comparable wretchedness and despondency upon friends and family members. (Christopher Hitchens was harrowingly resonant to write that "the lowest depth of misery ought to be distinguished from the highest pitch of anguish.")

A few days ago, King Edward VII Hospital nurse Jacintha Saldanha ended her own life. The exact means and circumstances have yet to be officially established, although it seems unlikely that her suicide was unrelated to her answering of the now notorious telephone prank call by two Australian radio hosts. 

Her death is of course tragic, and no decent person could possibly claim otherwise. However, I believe that the overwhelming media and public persecution of the radio station and the two presenters is both reactionary and undeserved - although explainable. 

As with any suicide, it is natural and reasonable to wish to understand the motive and influence - or more specifically in Mrs Saldanha's case, to establish a cause and subsequent blame: 2DayFM is simply the most convenient target.

This opinion may appear callous and insensitive, but I write as someone who has personally lived through the suicide of an immediate family member. Suicide is simply so emotive and profoundly distressing for all involved that reason and rationality is often negated. Instead of the resultant impulsive international condemnation and contempt expressed towards the previously insignificant Sydney-based ratio station, to be objective and unbiased requires a more measured and thoughtful analysis.

In brief: Was the telephone call made by Mel Greig and Michael Christian, the two unfortunate radio presenters, truly so at fault it was explicitly responsible for Mrs Saldanha's suicide?

That explanation, however convenient, is simply unusable. 

To listen to the call itself, the only thing more striking that its banality and insignificance is the innocuousness of the contribution made by Mrs Saldanha herself. Upon answering the dubious telephone call, her sole participation was to direct the line through to the shift nurse present on the floor where Kate Middleton was spending the night. So inoffensive was her involvement that the King Edward VII Hospital made no effort whatsoever to discipline or criticise her actions.

Once the harmlessness of her mistake is realised, the radio presenters themselves must of course be subject to scrutiny and enquiry. However, upon doing so, just as little justification for Mrs Saldanha's  regrettable actions and the resulting outrage is found.

Ms Greig was not attempting merely to cheaply excuse her own behaviour and that of Mr Christian when she said earlier today: "The accents were terrible. You know it was designed to be stupid. We were never meant to get that far from the little corgis barking in the background - we obviously wanted it to be a joke."

This is self-evident, and throughout the stunt no maliciousness, cruelty or cynicism occurred. 

Mr Christian was equally justified to say: "Prank calls are made every day, on every radio station in every country around the world, and they have been for a long time and no-one could've imagined this to happen.''

Not only do prank calls happen, constantly, on countless radio stations across the planet, they are often far nastier, cheaper, and vulgar than the efforts of 2DayFm. In fact, to Google or YouTube 'Prank gone wrong' will yield literally millions of results, of varying extents of seriousness and depravity.

Very few commentators seem to have acknowledged this, and many that have done so belong to the Australian media, perhaps quicker to defend the actions of their beleaguered fellow compatriots. 

Sydney's Daily Telegraph wrote that "the orgy of abuse, posturing and cant… is completely unsurprising given the modern enthusiasm for joining the lynch mob", while the Sydney Morning Herald forewarned: "The tragedy should not be used by the regulators in our midst to introduce even more controls over the media,". 

It's not scaremongering to state that these events risk imposing a dangerous precedent regarding censorship in the media and elsewhere. If consequences so shocking and unexpected can occur from comparatively inoffensive and mild behaviour such as this, to what extent are measures taken to prevent recurrences?

I do not believe that a single person has not encountered more far adverse, distressing, and challenging situations than that which sadly proved overwhelming for Mrs Saldanha in the early hours of Saturday morning, making her death all the more distressingly futile. She was understood to be of a nervous disposition, and it is not yet apparent if she suffered from any conditions to exacerbate her troubled mental state, such as depression. She leaves a husband and two teenage children, no doubt distraught and terribly bewildered as to why Mrs Saldanha decided so unnecessarily to make an end of it all.