Freedom sought on reporting of suicide

Coroner David Crerar speaks at the inquest in to the shooting rampage by Jan Molenaar. Photo / NZPA

Media and lawyers say rules too tough and out of step with most other countries.

Legal experts and media advocates have asked Parliament for greater freedom to report on suicides, saying New Zealand's rules are among the most restrictive in the world.

As part of reforms of the Coroners Act, the Government is looking to loosen the rules around how self-inflicted deaths can be reported.

Submitters to a select committee this week said the rules should be relaxed further than proposed.

At present, no information about a death which appears to be self-inflicted can be made public - unless the coroner agrees - until the coronial inquiry is completed.

If a coroner decides that a death is suicide, the only information that can be made public is the person's name, job and address and the fact that the death was self-inflicted.

Under the proposed reforms, the media will be able to report a death as a "suspected suicide" before a coroner's inquiry is completed, if the facts support that conclusion.

The Chief Coroner will be able to grant an exemption for a suicide to be reported on if satisfied that the risk of copycat behaviour is small and is outweighed by the public interest.

Media Freedom Committee member Clive Lind said that unlike the tabloid press overseas, New Zealand media had generally been responsible in reporting on suicide.

He said the changes were "a step forward" but added that if the facts clearly showed a death was suicide, reporters should not have to call it "suspected". This was the practice in most other similar jurisdictions.

He said copycat deaths as a result of suicide reporting were unlikely, because young people were more heavily influenced by social media than mainstream media. Giving the media greater freedom to discuss suicides would counter the effect of social media.

Lawyer Graeme Edgeler said a coroner's permission should not be required to report on suicide, and infringements should not be a criminal offence.

He recommended that the regulation of suicide reporting should be removed from the Coroners Act and left instead to the Broadcasting Standards Authority or the Press Council.

Mr Edgeler said there was sometimes a public interest in knowing how people killed themselves.

For example, when 2009 Napier siege gunman Jan Molenaar took his life, it was of public interest whether he was killed by the police or not.

The Media Freedom Committee was happy for the coroner to remain responsible for regulating the media's reporting on suicide.

The rules

At present
• No information about a suicide can be made public until a coronial inquiry is completed, unless special permission is granted.
• Once a death is confirmed as suicide, only the person's name, job and address and the fact that the death was self-inflicted can be published.
Proposed
• The media can report a death as "suspected suicide" before a coroner's inquiry is completed if it is clearly supported by the facts.
• The Chief Coroner can grant exemptions if satisfied there is no risk of copycat cases.