wannbe the outcomes that WERE foreseeable and highly likely aren't paltable in my book, and I do see clear parallels between this and health and safety incidents involving corporate or publicly owned bodies on physical health - except this is a mental health issue.
Thats the problem for me. And in those cases I do believe that people have to be held responsible at the radio station from the top down unfortunately.
The highly questionable decisions aren't not just a simple decision but a catalogue of them in succession with a total lack of regard for anyone else's well being.
And I do think you have to immediately put it in terms of well being, because this was targeted on a sick young woman.
So 1) You are targeting someone sick and vulnerable. Its not difficult to understand that it was entirely possible that the Duchess's condition could have been fair worse than publicly announced
2) You get through and get told information that you shouldn't and still allow it to be broadcast; and if you are the DJ and this goes over your head fine - but certainly the male DJ was laughing about it and making crass remarks about it being very good
3) You don't seek consent of those involved. Mainly because you know full well this was going to be refused as it would cause upset.
4) You get the lawyers in to check you haven't broken the law. Thus unwittingly acknowledging this could be quite a bit deal and theres a real possibility that you've already broken the law or could get your arse sued over this. But you decide to take the risk knowing the potential reward. And then even after the tragic death the radio station keeps pushing the point that they hadn't done anything illegal instead of ultimately manning up and taking responsibility.
5) And thats all before taking into the consideration the consequences to third parties who could easily loose their jobs over such an incident - got nothing to do with mental health but every bit as serious and not a laughing matter for anyone caught in the cross fire.
6) You do things that the British Press have a self imposed code of conduct not to do.
7) This particular radio station had previous on poor ethics, and they should have taken action previously to educate staff and prevent incidents like this from happening again. And if more junior members of staff were failed in this duty, they still should have been aware of the incident and been more conscious of ethical issues themselves to protect themselves.
8) This was organised and premeditated. Unlike the nurse put on the spot and deliberately lied to and misled.
You can not put a parallel between what happened to the nurse and what the DJs took a leading and active role in.
I could go on about the sheer number of things and points where alarm bells could and should have gone off and were ignored because profit and self promotion were the priority rather than anything else.
If a corporate body don't maintain their machinery properly and this poses a potential physical risk to the life or health of the general public even if this is highly unlikely event and the most extreme outcomes are beyond what people thought was possible, and there was no intent to harm anyone, the company and those individuals responsible within the company can still be held responsible. The question that is asked in these cases is, what are you reasonably able to predict and did you do everything within your power to minimise the risk of physical harm to others.
The fact this happens to be mental rather than physical harm seems to give people a completely different attitude to responsibility. And the fact that its resulted in a suicide means that people take the attitude that it was beyond the limits of prediction. But that misses the point of just how much damage WAS predictable and the radio station seemingly judged as acceptable.
And its in THIS context, that I have an extremely hard time giving sympathy to those responsible. Because it wasn't a simple stupid mistake. It was not a 'prank'. It was a massive public stunt that all concerned staked their reputation and image on. It was deeply calculated and carried on over the course of events. It was a corporate level mistake with many people responsible within the radio station. Its not just the DJs - and I personally feel those behind them are hiding behind them in many respects.