In the wake of the tragic suicide of the nurse in London from the prank phone call, and the possible legal responses to it that are being bandied about, I am once again reminded of two things:
1. just how (IMO!) insanely overly-lawyered western society is (well, after all, they IMO control the power) when it comes to things like free speech, and
2. a wonderful discussion I had in 2001 - after the first WTC bombing - with a Moslem co-worker about tolerance, in which she said something like, how nice it would be if people simply had more respect for others' beliefs.

If I had to predict, I guess there will be lots of discussion about limiting "free speech" on the mass media, but likely nothing will come of it. On the other hand, there is a serious-sized chunk of me that believes it would be correct to limit it, and some kind of penalties to hit in certain situations (like the nurse).

Maybe this thought is beyond what I can resolve on my own...anyone care to chime in ?

..i'm ashamed to be australian after reading that case..
i've already drafted my letter to the min of comm asking for 2DAY FM's license to be revoked..

radio stations should respect privacy, like any individual..

also, i think giving false and misleading information as to one's identity on the phone should be illegal..

these jocks should do time..

I think the lady was clearly unstable with or without the prank call I'm sure she would have taken the same path eventually, I feel more for the radio folk who more than likely are suffering just from bad timing.

Sorry but thats ridiculous, they should do time for a prank call?? I dont think so, get a grip. The call lasted all of 2 minutes, it wasnt funny, unless you think people doing stupid posh english accents is funny. It was a rubbish crank call but crank calls seem to be popular on radio stations, and "entertainment" like this has been going on for many years. Theres clearly something wrong with the woman who killed herself, all she did was say wait please and put the call through then she goes and kills herself?? for what?? the security services should be screening such calls anyway, especially with such high profile guests. And I dont think the presenters done anything too terrible, standard fare on radio stations and the whole witchhunt and condemnation of them is absurd, making out there some sort of monsters by bastions of morality, yawn

..if someone kills themselves as a result of a prank phone call the, depending on circumstances, there is a level of part-responsibility there..such as people who suicide after being bullied..

personally i'm happy for half the shock journos of the world to be put away..!
especially british tabloid ones..

but that's just me..guess i'll shut up and go back to technical posts devoid of emotion..

[EDIT: i'm not some auto-advocate of jailing, but that's the system..i voiced how i felt..]

Dont think they should go to jail though thats crazy talk, as ewok said she was going to do it anyway and sending everyone to prison doesnt really help anything.

I think you take nen888 a bit too seriously Infinite I. Like, chill out. He's not the PM. What gives?

Ans he's entitled to voice an opinion without being labeled 'crazy'. That's crazy!

I have a feeling there is some aspect of this whole story going untold. It does not really add up completely based on whats in the media about it. it just sounds odd.

For one thing, I heard the nurse simply took the phone call and passed it off to the ward or something..and that it was the nurse who passed the call on but never actaully took the call herself that killed herself..

Why would she feel responsible for passing on a phone call? Why would the rest of the hospital blame her?

From what I gather from the media reports..well I cant really gather enough to put together a really coherant story about all of this..it does not make sense to me. I dont know if you can trust the media with all the sensationalized money driven hype from behing the scenes.

I definitely don't think the journo's deserve jail. They played an extremely crappy english accented prank and fooled a couple of people. If anyone is to blame then it should be the hospital itself for not implementing a more rigorous screening process. The nurse herself was extremely selfish also, depriving her kids of a mother over a silly prank! I have no sympathy for her but i have lots of sympathy for her kids.

Eh sorry but he said they should go to jail, and his editing of his post saying oh thats the system doesnt really change my opinion, or his for that matter, he said it and thats it. You know what gives, and gripes me people who want to throw others in jail for stupid things, now look at the forum were on. Should we go to jail?? Should the stupid dj's go to jail?? Of course no one should be locked up for such things, think of the people in the world who would jail us for our activities, the majority would, now isnt that crazy?? And we need more craziness like jailing the people who made that phonecall because its the system?? wed all be in the system if they knew about our activities. Fuck the system, the systems a joke anyway, makes it worse editing that crap in.

I'm entitled to give my opinion of others posts as much as the next man and if I think its crazy then whats wrong with that?? Me thinking someones opinion is crazy is crazy?? That doesnt make sense!! Every opinion must be accepted and I should just agree?? sorry theres a lot of crazy people in the world, not saying nen is one just his post to me is and??? Jail is serious life destroying stuff, these djs lifes are already ruined by everyone jumping on this false morality bandwagon, whats jail going to do?? and is their "crime" worthy of it? I dont think so.

Also agree with Jamie this story stinks so bad, more shadiness surrounding the royal family!!

this whole thing really does'nt add up , something very weird is in the mix

It is exactly this attitude that's why free speech in so many countries is being restricted more and more. People get their feelings hurt by other people and then demand others to be silenced. "You cannot say that because it hurts my feelings" is a ridiculous way of thinking, people will have to learn to deal with being hurt because that is what life is about.

I fully agree that taking what others feel into account is an important factor of being human. But we cannot assume that others will do the same for us or demand from them that they do.

The women had tried to commit suicide before. No conspiracy or whatever. She was probably suffering from a depressive disorder of some sort, wich is very unfortunately but can´t be blamed on some australian pranksters. Maybe the workload lead up to that situation...healthcare is not the easiest branch to be working in.

Prank calling strangers is inappropriate. Bottom line.

Prank calling a friend of whom you can guess their probable reaction is fair enough, but throwing a stab in the dark just for your own personal amusement is way out of line, regardless of the circumstances.

She didn't commit suicide because of the phone call, she committed suicide because she was weak and mentally unstable

Exactly

Those guys from the radio did not "pull the trigger" , her death is absolutely NOT their responsibility. Its hers.

The whole royal family should be put behind bars for wasting taxpayers money.

agreed