The blame game rages on over Jacintha Saldanha's death









Mirror (UK):



They did not intend to drive the tricked nurse to suicide.



Sun (UK):




But the last thing we want is yet another witch hunt.


Sam Leith in London Evening Standard:





Daily Star (UK):






Daily Express (UK):








Bel Mooney writing on at Daily Mail (UK):




The Australian:




Sydney Morning Herald:



Herald Sun (Australia):



This time, however, laws have been broken.




David Penberthy of The Telegraph (Australia):







Obviously the staff at the hospital where anything but supportive. She was probably reprimanded and harassed by her supervisors . It was their responsibility to see her through this..

There is a lot more to this story than meets the eye. It's doubtful that anyone would take there life over this, and only time will tell what was really behind this nurses want to commit this sad act.
The farcical phone call seems as though it was a convenient excuse to mask a much larger issue in this womans life.

The death of a woman is a very unfortunate event, and there certainly is reason to think that, in this case, what happened was not accidental. So it's not irrational to seek to determine responsibility.

Compromising the confidentiality of medical information - particularly that of the Royal Family - is no mere prank, but a criminal offence in itself. However, it was not reasonable to expect a suicide as the outcome of such an act, even if it's more serious than sometimes viewed. So the woman's own mental state, or the way in which hospital staff were impressed with the importance of confidentiality, may be factors that should also be investigated.

I don't think trying to get to the bottom of a serious tragedy like this is a witch hunt.

If you look at all facets of this tragedy... the radio station, the 2 dj's, the hospital and the victim. They are all to blame, yet no one is to blame. I understand the horrors of disappointing the Royal Family but is it something alone to need to commit suicide? Maybe, maybe not. For the above 4 facets: it shouldn't have been allowed; it shouldn't have been done; there should have been more training; and (I'm sorry but) this was not something to be solely the reason to take one's life. The lessons learned of this tragedy should be: get a grip on your employees and offer help to the victim's family; stop the pranks -eventually someone always gets hurt; provide extensive training to all employees in the hospital so this does not occur again (whether it be Royals or common folk) and; she, and her family, have already paid the ultimate price -seek grief counseling and keep her in your memories.
The Royals will always be in the spotlight and the news agencies will always be hounding them. Unfortunately, none of them will care that their practices have cost 2 lives, one Royal and one commoner, and they will continue to get "the best scoop" at any cost.

The real culprit here is the culture that places the royals on a pedestal. It is this culture that led poor Ms. Saldanha to take her own life, a culture in which the royals - or, at least, the young, good-looking ones - are considered to be so untouchable that anyone associated with any sleight against them is made to feel that they've committed some heinous offense.

It started as a prank. Most non-physical forms of bullying do. Bullying is wrong. Period. It's tragic that somebody has to die before we sit up and pay attention. In this case, the catalyst for the bullying was the pursuit of higher ratings and more advertising dollars. In Canada you would go to jail! Just saying.

As radio personalities in a Commonwealth country it is not possible that these 2 radio jocks would not know of the incredible and overwhelming position the Royals, especially William and Kate hold in the minds and hearts of the British, and hence it is not conceivable that they would not realize the horrific position they put the nurses in by contacting and fooling them. their humiliation and shame would have been inescapable in Britain once the story broke.
Although I agree they cannot be legally held responsible for this woman;'s death, there is no way I cannot hold them and their employer morally responsible.

The world media itself is responsible for this unfortunate woman's demise. Polls have shown conclusively that the majority of peoples outside of Britain are rather indifferent to the royal family, and the media's obsession with Will and Kate has whipped up a frenzy that would not exist otherwise. Everyone needs to step back, take a deep breath, and put things back into perspective. A nice young couple they are, Will and Kate, but in context of everything that's going on in the world today, they are but bit players.

The Aussies' prank had tragic results. I have been pranked in the workplace, and was humiliated. I have also begged others to put an end to a prank which targeted a colleague, to no avail. Sadly, TV shows and current films celebrate pranking and make it seem legitimate. We should realize that any prank is likely to hurt someone.

There is an unpleasant irony in that this unborn child's grandmother was also very much the victim of 'paparazzi' fervor.

While this is a very very sad scenario that someone should loose their life and their soul. The underlying basis of this is the lack of respect by the 2 DJ's, not sure if thats the environment they have grown up and lived in. But their prank was directed at someone and they laughed and would probably still be laughing had the matter not ended up in tragedy. I hope many would learn that respect is first thing that must be instilled and taught to children so that they grow up as good decent human beings, not bullies trying to get what they want in life by bullying and intimidating others. Disgusting those 2 DJ's.........

If you pull a prank on a random stranger, you have no way of knowing how that person will react...or if they have some physical or mental issue which could cause them to react very badly. Therefore, you assume FULL RESPONSIBILITY for anything that happens, up to & including death (no matter how unlikely that possibility may seem to you).

For example, you are on a train, and the man across the aisle from you is asleep, and you think it would be funny to pop a paper bag & startle him. Unbeknownst to you, the man has a heart condition. When you pop the bag, he is so startled that he goes into cardiac arrest and dies.

Although you had no possible way of knowing he had a heart condition, you are charged with Manslaughter and Criminal Negligence Causing Death---because the man would still be alive if YOU hadn't decided it would be funny to pop that paper bag.

The DJs could also be charged with Blagging: impersonating another person in order to obtain access to personal information. In the wake of the "News of the World" scandal, the UK authorities are taking an extremely dim view of Blagging---even when as ineptly done as it was by the DJs. It's the INTENT, not how well it was done, that matters in the eyes of the law.

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