Suicide of Jacintha Saldanha

Following news of Saldanha's suicide, Austereo CEO Rhys Holleran said that Greig and Christian were both "deeply shocked" and would not return to their radio show until further notice.[18] A day later, as advertisers boycotted or threatened to boycott the station, 2Day FM suspended all advertising indefinitely.[19] On 10 December, Greig and Christian gave their first interviews since Saldanha's death, telling Nine Network's A Current Affair and Seven Network's Today Tonight that they were still badly shaken over the tragedy.[20]

Advertising on 2Day FM resumed 13 December, with Austereo announcing that it would donate the remainder of station advertising proceeds for 2012—a minimum of A$500,000 (£320,000)—to a memorial fund to benefit Saldanha's family.[21] Austereo also cancelled its annual Christmas party for employees in Sydney and donated the funds for the party to the non-profit organisations Beyond Blue and Lifeline.[22]

On 27 January 2013, Austereo announced that Hot30 Countdown was cancelled.[23] Christian returned to work in February and won Austereo's "Top Jock" award in June 2013 for his work on Fox FM in Melbourne, while Greig remained off-air.[24] Greig later sued Austereo for failure to provide a safe workplace; the lawsuit was settled in December 2013. As part of the settlement, Austereo made a public statement that Greig was not responsible for the decision to air the hoax call and had suggested that it be edited before broadcast.[25] Greig found work in advertising after leaving Austereo,[26] but in 2016 returned to radio work in Wollongong, south of Sydney.[27] In March 2018, Greig revealed that she became the target of online bullies following the prank and became a contributor for anti-bullying campaigns.[28]

The burial function for Saldanha was held on 17 December 2012 in the town of Shirva in Karnataka, India.[29] More than 1,000 people attended the mass and burial ceremony, including a minister of Karnataka state, a former Central Minister and other state functionaries.[29][30] Several Karnataka dignitaries also visited Saldanha's mother, who lives in Mangalore with Saldanha's siblings.[3]

Dozens of students staged a demonstration in front of the British High Commission in New Delhi, carrying banners demanding "Justice for Jacintha".[3] The Chief Minister of Karnataka expressed concern over the back-to-back deaths of Saldanha and Savita Halappanavar, both women of Karnataka origin working abroad, and wrote letters to the Indian prime minister urging him to take steps to ensure the safety of Indian citizens abroad.[31] RJ Balaji, based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, discontinued his radio show Cross Talk – where he made prank calls to unsuspecting victims – in response to Saldanha's death.[32]

As part of their investigation into the death, the Metropolitan Police Service in London contacted the New South Wales Police Force in Sydney. However, on 28 December 2012, the New South Wales deputy police commissioner said that there had been no formal request from UK police to interview Greig and Christian, and that it seemed "unlikely any charges will be laid."[33] British prosecutors confirmed in February 2013 that they would not be pressing charges against the presenters; although Greig and Christian may have committed offences under Britain's Data Protection Act 1998 and Malicious Communications Act 1988, prosecution was deemed to "not be in the public interest" because it would not be possible to extradite the Australians and because "however misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank".[34]

On 13 December 2012, Australian media watchdog Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) launched an inquiry to assess whether the radio station had breached the conditions of their broadcasting licence.[35] In September 2013, it was reported that ACMA had prepared a confidential preliminary report that found 2Day FM had acted illegally by broadcasting the hoax phone call without consent. Southern Cross Austereo was seeking to block the report's release, arguing that ACMA did not have standing to make a criminal finding.[36] A Federal Court judge sided with ACMA in November 2013, but was reversed by a decision of the full bench of the Federal Court in March 2014. ACMA subsequently appealed to the High Court, which agreed in August 2014 to hear the case.[37] On 4 March 2015 the High Court upheld the earlier decision of the ACMA, ruling that the radio station behind the royal hoax call broke the law.[38]

In its report,[39] which was released 22 April 2015, ACMA found that 2Day FM had breached the Australian commercial radio code of conduct by broadcasting a statement of an identifiable person without her consent and that they had treated her in a highly demeaning or highly exploitative manner.[40][41] ACMA applied a third licence condition to 2Day FM as a sanction which consisted of staff ethics training and a three hour broadcast raising awareness of bullying, depression and anxiety.[42]