Other large companies, including Woolworths and Optus, were reportedly considering withdrawing their ads when the station made the decision to suspend advertising of its own accord. Ms Kaye said the decision meant no advertising would run on the station from Saturday afternoon, and confirmed this was as a result of discussions with the station’s commercial sponsors. “They want to keep their advertisers happy and they just pulled the advertising, only on 2Day FM 104.1 in Sydney, at least until Monday, just to keep advertisers happy right now,” she said. “They’re reassuring and speaking to advertisers but they’ve pulled them for the moment until they've cleared it all up with them.”



She said it was unlikely the advertising blackout would last beyond Monday, but added station management had been focused on the welfare of the two presenters who conducted the prank call. "Because they've been so focused on the talent, they really haven’t had time to make business decisions and work ways forward, and the sales staff are not back at work and all of that, so I think they just said, hold off until Monday when business as usual takes over ... and start to look at business in a different light."

Asked if the response was due fears of an avalanche of advertiser boycotts, Ms Kaye said: “I guess it probably is. They’re not words that have been given to me, but I guess that's the understanding. The words that were given to me were 'in order to keep advertisers happy'.” Asked how much the advertising shutdown might cost the company, Ms Kaye said money was "not important right now ... [the] focus is on all people concerned first and foremost". Coles was the first advertiser to react, pulling its advertising from the station on Saturday morning. ‘‘We understand Australians are clearly angry and upset by what appear to be tragic consequences of the 2Day FM hospital prank,’’ the Coles group said in a statement on its Facebook page. ACMA will be engaging with the licensee, Today FM Sydney, around the facts and issues surrounding the prank call.

‘‘We have wanted to let you know we have instructed 2Day FM to remove all Coles group advertising from the station as soon as possible’’. The supermarket chain posted the statement at about 11.15am. By midday, nearly 2000 people had ‘liked’ it and it had received 874 comments. There were more than 11,000 comments on 2Day FM's Facebook page about the tragedy. A Telstra spokesman told Fairfax Media: "I can confirm that Telstra has suspended advertising on the station until an investigation into the issue has concluded." The incident has thrown the often abstract issue of media regulation into the spotlight. Until now, harm caused by the media has been mostly chronicled by defamation suits and invasions of privacy. Even with the criminality that sparked the Leveson Inquiry into the standards of the British press - the phone hacking of a murdered school girl's phone by News of the World - nobody was suggesting that the newspaper had killed anybody.

But such claims, directed at 2Day FM presenters who made the prank call, Mel Greig and Michael Christian, are widespread on the Twitter and Facebook this morning. "People are calling for the Australian DJs to be sacked. Sacked?! I'd like to see involuntary manslaughter charges against them," said Dave Turner on Twitter. Several hours after the news broke of the nurse's death, more than 10,000 comments had accumulated on 2Day FM's Facebook page. Most express outrage and call for the two DJs to be punished or banned. The chief executive of Southern Cross Austereo - the company that owns 2Day FM - said the two presenters responsible for the prank will not return to their radio show until further notice. ''What gives radio hosts the right to treat people with such disregard just to get a laugh?'' asks Rob Newman in a comment typical of the Facebook thread.

''It is so wrong that people like this are given the power to have their voices on the radio for people to hear them talk their utter rubbish!'' said Lyndell Brownlee. Authorities are now asking themselves the same questions. In a statement, the Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, confirmed there had been a flood of complaints over the prank but said the "decision about whether to investigate the call for possible breaches of the Commercial Radio Codes of Practice is one for the independent regulator." The regulator of online and broadcast media is for now withholding judgment. ''The ACMA [Australian Communications and Media Authority] does not propose to make any comments at this stage, but will be engaging with the licensee, Today FM Sydney, around the facts and issues surrounding the prank call,'' said Chris Chapman, chairman of ACMA.

''These events are a tragedy for all involved and I pass on my heartfelt condolences to the family of the deceased nurse in London,'' Mr Chapman said. In May, ACMA found that 2Day FM had breached the ''decency provision'' of the broadcasting code when breakfast presented Kyle Sandilands called a female journalist a ''fat slag'' and a ''piece of shit'' on air. Loading ACMA made decency a condition of 2Day FM's licence for the next five years. Support is available for anyone who may be distressed by phoning Lifeline 13 11 14; Mensline 1300 789 978; Kids Helpline 1800 551 800.