Press Council finds Courier-Mail breached rules in suicide story
The Australian Press Council has found the Courier-Mail in Queensland to have breached rules around the reporting of suicides when it carried a story syndicated from NSW on the apparent suicide/murder involving a woman and her son.
The story, published under the headline “Mother, son found dead beneath cliff at Maroubra” on March 31, 2016, reported on the death of a woman and her two-year-old son and included photographs identifying the scene, a number of quotes from family members and an apparent suicide note.
Commenting on the substance of the story the Press Council noted: “It said the mother ‘described killing herself and [her son] as the ‘bravest thing’ she had ever done and quoted a ‘family member [who] also paid tribute’ as having said: ‘People say what a coward, but I say how brave was that …’”
Citing rules under section 6 that require media to treat suicide reporting with sensitivity the Council noted the story “referred to the method and location of the incident and extracts from an apparent suicide note”.
“The Council considered that the details of the method, the precise location, the suicide note and the tribute to the mother being ‘brave’ were likely to cause or contribute materially to substantial offence, distress or prejudice, or a substantial risk to health or safety,” the Council said in its adjudication.
“While there was a public interest in reporting the apparent murder-suicide, it could have been reported without such details. The Council concluded that the publication failed to take reasonable steps to avoid breaching General Principle 6.”
In its defence the Courier-Mail said that the story had been syndicated from another paper.
“Due to the automation involved the publication had no input into compiling the article and the published article could only be changed by alteration to the source article,” the adjudication said.
“On being contacted by the Council, it contacted the originating publication and arranged to alter the headline to remove reference to ‘beneath cliff’, the tribute referring to the act being brave’ and reference to the suicide note.
“The publication said it had no intention to breach either Standard. As the article concerned an apparent murder-suicide, reporting on the murder aspect was in the public interest and outweighed any substantial offence or distress, or risk to health and safety which may otherwise have been in breach of General Principle 6. As to the Coverage of Suicide Standard, it said there was a real question of whether the Standard should apply to murder-suicide reporting as this might prevent proper reporting of murder.”
However the Council ruled that publications are responsible for the content of syndicated materials and that the description of the mother being “brave” was likely to cause offence.
“While there was a public interest in reporting the apparent murder-suicide, it could have been reported without including such details,” it said.
“As to Coverage of Suicide Standard 5 [disclosing the method or location of a suicide], the Council considers that reporting the details of the method, the precise location, the suicide note and the tribute to the mother being ‘brave’ gave rise to a risk of further suicides. The apparent murder-suicide could have been reported without these details. The public interest in reporting these details did not outweigh the risk of causing further suicides. The Council concludes the publication breached Coverage of Suicide Standard 5 is this respect.”
The Press Council noted that the Courier Mail took prompt action to alter the article after it had been contacted by the Press Council.
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