Speaker 1: Just a heads up. Today's episode contains discussion of suicide
Speaker 1: and distressing themes. It might not be for you, so
Speaker 1: feel free to skip ahead. Or if you or anyone
Speaker 1: you know needs help, Lifeline is available for twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven support on thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 2: Already, and this is the DAILYA.
Speaker 1: This is the dalyi OS.
Speaker 2: Oh, now it makes sense.
Speaker 1: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily OS. It's Thursday,
Speaker 1: the tenth of July. I'm Emma Gillespie.
Speaker 2: I'm Sam Kazlowski, a former.
Speaker 1: Radio host, is taking legal action against his ex employer
Speaker 1: over a twenty twelve pranc call controversy that made global headlines.
Speaker 1: Michael Christian is suing Southern Cross Ostereo, claiming he wasn't
Speaker 1: supported through the fallout of an on air segment that
Speaker 1: led to tragic consequences. Today, we're going to explain what
Speaker 1: happened in twenty twelve, everything about this prank phone call
Speaker 1: and the fallout, as well as the legal action that
Speaker 1: is now underway, and what Christian is alleging about his
Speaker 1: treatment at sea.
Speaker 2: Emma, it's hard to believe that this story goes back
Speaker 2: more than a decade, thirteen years before we get into
Speaker 2: the specifics of what happened and why we're talking about
Speaker 2: it this week. Give us a sense of the broader
Speaker 2: commercial radio landscape back then in twenty twelve. Yeah, you
Speaker 2: and I are in near twelve.
Speaker 1: We were in near twelve, ging.
Speaker 2: A sense of what the radio sounded like and felt
Speaker 2: like at that time.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was really a time of shock jock culture.
Speaker 1: And if it feels like Australian commercial radio is still
Speaker 1: in that place, trust me when I say it is
Speaker 1: a vastly different world now and largely because of the
Speaker 1: case we're going to talk about today, but particularly on
Speaker 1: breakfast radio and commercial drive, prank calls were a staple
Speaker 1: of programming, really really common. You would hear prank calls
Speaker 1: on every major network all the time. They were designed
Speaker 1: to kind of generate controversy and buzz, and the early
Speaker 1: twenty tens twenty twelve included, really represented this kind of
Speaker 1: peak period for controversial radio contents. So shock jock culture
Speaker 1: hosts trying to push the boundaries, and networks like Southern
Speaker 1: Cross Ostereo were kind of often focused or you could
Speaker 1: often hear them trying to carry out these high profile stunts.
Speaker 1: So the regulatory environment as well, at the time was
Speaker 1: less stringent, and in fact, the prank call we're discussing
Speaker 1: today never would have happened in other places where regulations
Speaker 1: were tighter, like the US, where actually anyone is required
Speaker 1: to give their consent before their voice is broadcast. But
Speaker 1: that gives you a little bit of a sense of
Speaker 1: what things were like here in Australia.
Speaker 2: I think the other really interesting element about this time
Speaker 2: period was the rapid rise of Facebook and this growing
Speaker 2: idea and this growing sense that these stuff could actually
Speaker 2: have a life of their own on social media after
Speaker 2: they were broadcast.
Speaker 1: Really nascent social media stages.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I can almost kind of picture the news
Speaker 2: feed of when these stunts really went viral. So that
Speaker 2: was the environment when the twenty twelve incident occurred. Take
Speaker 2: me through the incident itself now, yeap.
Speaker 1: So where in December twenty twenty twelve, when Michael Christian
Speaker 1: and his co host mel Greg were working on todayfm's
Speaker 1: Summer thirty program. So it was a summer broadcast, it
Speaker 1: was going through the biggest hits of the day and
Speaker 1: the radio station in question, TODAYFM, that we're talking about,
Speaker 1: was specifically a Sydney broadcaster, but it's part of the
Speaker 1: Southern Cross Austereo Network.
Speaker 2: Which is a publicly listed company. It's a serious.
Speaker 1: Player, massive company, and we'll refer to it as SEA
Speaker 1: throughout the rest of the episode. But on the fourth
Speaker 1: of December, this radio duo made a prank call to
Speaker 1: a London hospital. Now important context for the time is
Speaker 1: that Princess Catherine Kate Middleton you might know her as,
Speaker 1: was receiving treatment for her first pregnancy. So there was
Speaker 1: all this kind of global media interest in what was
Speaker 1: happening with her pregnancy. The child that she would have
Speaker 1: eventually was George, but she had been hospitalized and was unwell.
Speaker 1: This radio duo, Michael Christian and mel greg impersonated Prince
Speaker 1: Charles and Queen Elizabeth on a phone call to the hospital.
Speaker 2: So these two hosts put on these broad British accents
Speaker 2: call up the hospital, and the hospital staff actually believed
Speaker 2: they were speaking two members of the royal family, right, yes.
Speaker 1: So what we know from the hosts leading up to
Speaker 1: and after this is that they never expected that they
Speaker 1: would get past the switchboard of the hospital, that their accents,
Speaker 1: in their opinions, were not convincing, and that it was
Speaker 1: all just a bit of silliness, but it went wrong
Speaker 1: very very quickly, so two hospital members ended up being
Speaker 1: deceived by the call. So the person who answered it
Speaker 1: and then transferred to a nurse, and and that nurse,
Speaker 1: the second nurse, revealed private details about Princess Catherine's condition.
Speaker 1: The call, importantly was not broadcast live, but it was
Speaker 1: later aired by sea, so the network did decide to
Speaker 1: go ahead with running it. Very tragically, just three days later,
Speaker 1: one of those nurses, her name is Jacintha Saldana, she
Speaker 1: died by suicide. Now Saldana is not the nurse who
Speaker 1: disclosed the patient information to the hosts, but she is
Speaker 1: the nurse that transferred the call to an on duty
Speaker 1: nurse on the Duchess's hospital ward and.
Speaker 2: So very quickly this event had a global audience and
Speaker 2: was making news all over the world. Let's go to
Speaker 2: the reaction from the Royal family and the UK media.
Speaker 1: Yes, so two very very different responses here. Will start
Speaker 1: with the Royal family. It was notably very restrained in
Speaker 1: its response. Its response was centered around compassion. A statement
Speaker 1: from the Royal family at the time said their Royal
Speaker 1: Highnesses were looked after so wonderfully well at all times
Speaker 1: by everyone at the King Edward the Seventh Hospital, the
Speaker 1: hospital where Kate was being treated. Their thoughts and prayers
Speaker 1: are with Jacyntha's family, friends and colleagues at this very
Speaker 1: sad time. So that response was really focused on the
Speaker 1: care that the duchess received. The UK media reaction, though,
Speaker 1: was markedly different. I'm sure our listeners are very familiar
Speaker 1: with the tabloid culture over there. It is cutthroat, completely
Speaker 1: different worlds to here. In Australia. The Telegraph one of
Speaker 1: the tabloids. They're essentially accused the Aussie radio hosts of
Speaker 1: scamming the hospital. The Mail Online wrote of this palace
Speaker 1: fury at the Australian radio pranksters. It described them as
Speaker 1: and The Sun suggested that the hosts had quote flirted
Speaker 1: with a charge of high treason by posing as the Queen.
Speaker 2: So you have this situation where a prank call goes
Speaker 2: horribly wrong yep, and then a massive fallout both for
Speaker 2: staff at the hospital and then the broader media landscape
Speaker 2: all around the world. What was the response like as
Speaker 2: that was unfolding from the two hosts and their employer.
Speaker 1: In a word, shattered, Christian and Greg did a series
Speaker 1: of interviews at the time after the death of the nurse,
Speaker 1: and you can see it on their faces. They were
Speaker 1: incredibly distressed by what came to happen from what was
Speaker 1: meant to be a silly prank. They said, they were shattered, gutted, heartbroken.
Speaker 1: The duo apologized, but they did maintain and they have
Speaker 1: continued to maintain over the years since, that the decision
Speaker 1: to air the call was not up to them, that
Speaker 1: senior decision makers at SEA were the ones that pushed
Speaker 1: for the segment two go to air. The incident, as
Speaker 1: you said, made global headlines. There was significant backlash and
Speaker 1: most of that, it should be said, was directed at
Speaker 1: the hosts.
Speaker 2: And it's pretty fair to say that neither host has
Speaker 2: worked in professional radio since. Right.
Speaker 1: Well, it might surprise you actually to know that one
Speaker 1: of them continued to work for SCA right up until
Speaker 1: this year.
Speaker 2: Okay, well, I want to talk about that in a
Speaker 2: sec Why don't we go to the regulators now. So
Speaker 2: you did say at the top that it was a
Speaker 2: different regulatory landscape than it is on commercial radio today,
Speaker 2: but there was still some investigation and reporting based on
Speaker 2: what happened.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there were a series of investigations from the regulatory
Speaker 1: perspective and to see if there was any criminal wrongdoing.
Speaker 1: So the media watchdog, that's the Australian Communications and Media
Speaker 1: Authority or AKMA, it found that the station Today FM
Speaker 1: breached its broadcasting license by airing the call. Now these
Speaker 1: findings might sound quite firm or serious, but they didn't
Speaker 1: actually lead to any kind of tangible penalties. For SCA,
Speaker 1: it was confronting the threat of losing its broadcast license,
Speaker 1: so that can zone did loom large over these inquiries,
Speaker 1: but ultimately AKMAR ruled that it would not take away
Speaker 1: its broadcast license. But the aftermath of this that is
Speaker 1: not written in a black and white regulation is that
Speaker 1: broadcasters changed their approach because they were so rattled, jarred,
Speaker 1: scarred by what had happened from this call. So immediately
Speaker 1: kind of prank calls became a massive taboo in commercial radio.
Speaker 1: There was a coronial inquest in the UK into Saldana's
Speaker 1: death right. It heard that she was left very upset
Speaker 1: by the call, that she blamed herself in those days afterwards,
Speaker 1: and her husband told the UK in quest that the
Speaker 1: forty six year old mother of two did not have
Speaker 1: a history of mental ill health before her death.
Speaker 2: So that's quite a serious ton of events.
Speaker 1: Yep.
Speaker 2: Why are we talking about it this week?
Speaker 1: So there is current legal action the cases back in
Speaker 1: the headlines because Michael Christian, one of the radio duo
Speaker 1: involved in the prank call, filed action in the federal court. Now,
Speaker 1: as I mentioned earlier, that one of the hosts continued
Speaker 1: working for SEA, So that's him. That was him. He
Speaker 1: worked there until February this year. Mel greg actually left
Speaker 1: the network shortly after the twenty twelve incident. Christian, though,
Speaker 1: has now launched this legal action, alleging that he was
Speaker 1: pressured into the prank call by the network. He claims
Speaker 1: he became a scapegoat for the incident and that SCA
Speaker 1: failed to support him during the intense period of backlash
Speaker 1: that followed after Saldana's death and in the years of
Speaker 1: inquiries and investigations that were subsequent. He also says that
Speaker 1: this led to severe mental health issues and damaged his career.
Speaker 2: So is this happening in the context of like an
Speaker 2: unfair dismissal case?
Speaker 1: Essentially, yes, So it's an action in the federal court
Speaker 1: under a fair work claim. So Christian was made redundant
Speaker 1: in February of this year, but he argues that the
Speaker 1: termination was not genuine. He says that Southern crossholl Stereo
Speaker 1: still requires someone to perform his role, that it's being backfilled,
Speaker 1: and so his lawyers claim that that dismissal is in
Speaker 1: breach of the Fair Work Act because redundancies are meant
Speaker 1: to be in place if the role someone's performing is
Speaker 1: no longer required. That Christian says is not the case
Speaker 1: with his dismissal, And.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of complicated law around how long the
Speaker 2: position has to be empty for before a similar position
Speaker 2: can be filled by the employer. Redundancy law takes up
Speaker 2: a lot of the time of the Fair Work kind
Speaker 2: of legal experts what specifically those Christian arguing about the
Speaker 2: network's handling of the situation. Back in twenty twelve.
Speaker 1: So, according to court documents seen by the Australian Associated Press,
Speaker 1: Southern crosshold Stereo promised that it would support its hosts
Speaker 1: through any controversies related to on air content. And I
Speaker 1: suppose this speaks to the culture of twenty twelve radio
Speaker 1: that a lot of stations were going for the kind
Speaker 1: of shock value in their segments in the face of
Speaker 1: kind of this uprising social media threat and people young
Speaker 1: listeners especially kind of becoming disengaged. So hosts were made
Speaker 1: to believe that they had the support of the network,
Speaker 1: but Christian said, even though he really did believe SAA
Speaker 1: would protect him, it instead let its presenters take the blame.
Speaker 2: So that's really interesting because it's this sense of like
Speaker 2: the executives, according to Christians, kind of saying to the hosts,
Speaker 2: we know you're going to try some stuff on air
Speaker 2: that's a bit red hot. Yeah, but we've got your back.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but go for it. And Christian says basically he
Speaker 1: had no choice about the call going to air, that
Speaker 1: it was not his decision to do the segment or
Speaker 1: run the segment, but that the broadcaster wanted to do that,
Speaker 1: and he thought that that meant that they would stand
Speaker 1: by him. According to the AAP reporting on the court documents,
Speaker 1: Christians lawyers have told the court that Southern Cross OS
Speaker 1: Stereo Quote did not immediately take public accountability for the incident,
Speaker 1: but rather allowed mister Christian and miss greg to be
Speaker 1: left exposed to relentless public vitriol, harassment, and abuse, including
Speaker 1: death threats.
Speaker 2: It's worth noting at the moment, those are all allegations
Speaker 2: being leveled at the network. Have we heard from the
Speaker 2: network in response to these? And also, I wonder if
Speaker 2: we've heard from Mel Greg.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well I can answer both of those questions for you, Sam,
Speaker 1: We have actually heard from SCA. I reached out and
Speaker 1: a spokesperson got back to me and said, as the
Speaker 1: matter is currently before the courts, and out of respect
Speaker 1: for the legal process and the privacy of those involved,
Speaker 1: it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time,
Speaker 1: so kind of what we expect from a corporation during
Speaker 1: ongoing legal proceedings. The matters are before the courts, so
Speaker 1: there's not too much they can say right now. But
Speaker 1: as for Mel Greg, we have also heard from her.
Speaker 1: So she posted to her Instagram stories with a statement
Speaker 1: saying she understands why her former colleague has chosen to
Speaker 1: go down this path, and she said that she hopes
Speaker 1: the continued attention on this tragic incident will lead to
Speaker 1: quote substantial reforms in the way media produce content and
Speaker 1: support their staff. She's been really candid over the last
Speaker 1: decade about the impact this incident had on her mental health.
Speaker 1: She has not really worked in radio or in the
Speaker 1: media industry in the same way since and really this
Speaker 1: changed the course of her life.
Speaker 2: Listeners to this podcast are very familiar with the fact
Speaker 2: that these court cases can take some time. What happens
Speaker 2: next here.
Speaker 1: Well, the matter is yet to appear before the court.
Speaker 1: We're in our very early stages of proceedings. Basically, all
Speaker 1: we know is that Michael Christian and his team have
Speaker 1: lodged a submission to sue SCA to the federal court.
Speaker 1: He is expected to seek compensation for economic loss and damages.
Speaker 1: Now that will be relating to the twenty twelve prank
Speaker 1: call incident. That will be also relating to Sea's handling
Speaker 1: of the fallout, and now this fair work claim of
Speaker 1: unfair dismissal. It is worth noting that Melgreg filed similar
Speaker 1: proceedings against the network in twenty thirteen, but she agreed
Speaker 1: to a private settlement following mediation talks led by the
Speaker 1: Fair Work Commission. So there is some precedent of fair
Speaker 1: work negotiations between these two parties, the host and the network.
Speaker 1: We will never really know what happened in that settlement,
Speaker 1: and even Melgreg, in her statement earlier this week, said
Speaker 1: that she'll never really be able to talk about what happened,
Speaker 1: but she does hope that some good comes from this
Speaker 1: continued attention.
Speaker 2: A really tragic case that's had lasting impacts, and despite
Speaker 2: wins or losses in the court, I don't think there
Speaker 2: really are any winners from this situation. I just want
Speaker 2: to reiterate that helpline number one more time. If you
Speaker 2: or anyone you know needs some help, you can contact
Speaker 2: Lifeline anytime on thirteen eleven fourteen at thirteen eleven fourteen.
Speaker 2: That's all we've got for you for today's deep dive.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us. We're going to
Speaker 2: be back in the afternoon with your headlines. Until then,
Speaker 2: have a great day. My name is Lily Maddon and
Speaker 2: I'm a proud Arunda Bunjelung Kalkadoon woman from Gadighl Country.
Speaker 2: The Daily oz acknowledges that this podcast is recorded on
Speaker 2: the lands of the Gadighl people and pays respect to
Speaker 2: all Aboriginal and torrest Rate island and nations. We pay
Speaker 2: our respects to the first peoples of these countries, both
Speaker 2: past and present.