[attach id=258619 size="medium"]Michael Christian[/attach]

One of the Australian radio presenters who staged a royal prank call, that was linked to the suicide of a London nurse, has been awarded the title of ‘top jock’ by his employer, radio network Southern Cross Austereo .

Michael Christian was the joint winner in one of the categories of an internal competition that recognises the company’s ‘best in the land’. He was awarded a trip to Los Angeles as part of his prize. But the award was not welcomed by all.

“To be seen to be rewarding people so soon after such an event, I think, is just in bad taste,” National Communications Minister Stephen Conroy told a Melbourne radio station.

Christian and his colleague Mel Greig made a prank call to the London hospital treating Prince William’s wife, Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, in December 2012.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha put the call through to a colleague who, despite the deejays’ unconvincing accents, disclosed details of the duchess’s medical condition.

Saldanha was found hanged in her apartment days after the call.