Does the media need to learn self-restraint?

### Molly Ackhurst

**The suicide of Jacintha Saldanha, a nurse at King Edward VII hospital is a tragic event, however due to her undesired involvement in a prank phone call made by two Australian DJ’s, her death has become yet another specimen in the on-going debate about the media. Yet while her suicide is heart-breaking, is this critique of the press going a bit far?**

The criticism of this particular example is two-fold. Firstly the two DJ’s who made the hoax call in which they pretended to be the Queen and Prince Charles with heavy Australian accents in the hope of gaining information about Kate Middleton, have been branded thoughtless and have even received death threats. Criticism has also extended to the wider media, for supposedly latching onto the story of the prank and supposedly ridiculing the nurses involved for their gullibility, something which has been claimed to have pushed Saldanah over the edge. Yet I believe this is all somewhat ridiculous, merely another attempt to further limit the media and has been blown out of proportion resultantly. In actual fact the initial media response to the hoax call was inconsequential, with most of the stories not even mentioning the names of those involved. Moreover Saldanah’s role in the hoax was minor, it was actually another nurse who really fell for the DJ’s poor accents providing a series of information about the Kate’s health, who was staying at the hospital due to severe morning sickness at the time. This is something much of the press coverage has failed to mention. Although it is unfortunate timing that Saldanah’s suicide followed shortly after the hoax, it is ludicrous to claim that the media had any real hand in her death, yet this is what has been reported.

I am not claiming that the media is all sweetness and roses, in fact in this particular example things were not necessarily done by the book, for example the hospital was not notified that the hoax call would appear on the radio. Nonetheless I do not believe any changes should be made; bubble wrapping journalism is not the answer. We currently live in a society enthralled in what is “acceptable” and P.C . People seem incapable of accepting that we live in a world where mistakes are made, that things can and sometimes should be offensive or distasteful. As society become ever more multicultural the lines between what is acceptable and what is not are becoming ever more blurred, something only accentuated by the mass of technology which allows information at the tab of a button.

I must point out that I do not agree with overtly invasive journalism such as that which the Leveson inquiry has attacked, but can this hoax call really be put under the same umbrella? We are meant to live in a liberal country which prides freedom of speech, yet at every turn this freedom is limited. Instead of attacking the reporters of news, perhaps it is time for those who criticise to develop a harder skin and learn to not be so easily offended.