Southern Cross Austereo (SCA) has commenced proceedings in the Federal Court after ACMA revealed its preliminary findings to the company of its investigation into the network's now-infamous royal prank call.
ACMA is still investigating the prank call - conducted by Sydney-based 2DayFM hosts Mel Greig and Michael Christian in December last year - to see if it breached the condition of its broadcasting licence, which stated that it must not use its broadcasting service in the commission of an offence. The regulatory body is also considering whether the station breached the Surveillance Devices Act of 2007 in recording the phone call.
However, SCA has argued that ACMA "has
no power to make such a finding". "[It has no power to]
investigate whether the recording of a telephone call breaches state
or federal laws and the agencies which do have that power have not
conducted an investigation or sought any information from Today FM.
Today FM also considers that the recording of the prank call did not
breach any law."
ACMA has said it intends to contest the network's argument.
The royal prank call saw the 2DayFM hosts call King Edward VII Hospital in London and impersonate the Queen of England and the Duke of Edinburgh - and their corgis - while Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge was being treated for pregnancy-related illness. It ended in tragedy some days later when the nurse who transferred the call, Jacintha Saldanha, committed suicide. She blamed her action on the prank.
It sparked major controversy globally and saw SCA temporarily suspend all its advertising, and donate the year's remaining ad profits to Saldanha's family.
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