Channel 4 News is being investigated by media regulator Ofcom over the broadcast of the Duchess of Cambridge prank royal phone call featuring nurse Jacintha Saldanha hours after she had been found dead.
The news bulletin replayed the opening exchanges of the call, by Australian radio presenters Mel Greig and Michael Christian, to the King Edward VII hospital where the Duchess of Cambridge was being treated. The edition of ITN-made Channel 4 News aired on 7 December.
Earlier that day Saldanha, who transferred the call to the nurse treating the duchess, had been found dead in the nurses' quarters of the hospital in central London.
Ofcom said it had received two complaints about the broadcast. The regulator is investigating the bulletin under section two of its broadcasting code, relating to harm and offence, requiring that "generally accepted standards" be applied to broadcasts to provide "adequate protection for members of the public from … harmful and/or offensive material".
Saldanha, who worked at the private hospital for four years, answered the call from the DJs on Austereo-owned station 2Day FM early on the morning of 4 December. The pair pretended to be the Queen and the Prince of Wales.
The nurse was found dead in an apparent suicide three days later.
Separately in the regulator's broadcasting code, it also warns against broadcasting footage or audio of people caught up in a "personal tragedy".
It adds that broadcasters should "try to reduce the potential distress to victims and/or relatives when making or broadcasting programmes intended to examine past events that involve trauma to individuals".
An ITN spokeswoman said: "At Channel 4 News the editorial team works hard to treat sensitive news events in a compassionate and appropriate way. In this instance, an editorial judgement was made on the day to broadcast a small segment (less than ten seconds) of the call for clarity. Although we do not accept there was a breach of the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, with hindsight we may have made a different editorial decision and we regret any offence caused."
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