A DOZEN print and online articles – including one on the website of the Daily Record – have been found in breach of the Press Complaints Commission’s code on the reporting of suicide.
The code – designed to minimise the risk of copycat suicides, by requiring editors to avoid publishing excessive detail about methods of suicide – was said to have been violated by the reporting of a man killing himself with a chainsaw.
As well as dailyrecord.co.uk, the PCC also criticised the Daily Mirror; Mirror online, the Sun, Sun online, the Daily Star, Telegraph online, Mail online, Metro.co.uk, Independent.co.uk, thelondonpaper.com and crawleyobserver.co.uk.
Articles in The Guardian and the Metro newspaper did not breach the code.
The PCC said specifically of the article in dailyrecord.co.uk that it “contained excessive detail about the method of suicide”.
It went on: “The article contained a long and graphic reference to the method of suicide. It set out the precise apparatus that had been constructed by the individual to enable his death.
“The newspaper accepted that the article went too far in terms of detail. It apologised, and acted to make sure that the back bench and night desk were more familiar with the terms of the code in this area.”
And added: “The Commission welcomed the newspaper’s response to this complaint and trusted that the situation would not be repeated.”
