Ms Susan McKay:

My understanding is that the code committee attended consultations with some of the organisations that work with people bereaved by suicide and that they took guidance from them. That was when principle 10, reporting of suicide, was introduced to the code. It had not originally been there. It simply states: “In the reporting of suicide, excessive detail of the means of suicide should be avoided.” That is a simple principle but we would also be guided by a lot of the material that is produced by the organisations that work with people bereaved by suicide. We would try to attend to those sensitivities. At the same time, the code is finding a balance where newspapers have to make their own editorial decisions about when it is relevant to talk about a death being by suicide. Most publications avoid using language such as “committed suicide” and that kind of thing which goes back to when suicide was regarded as a crime. Sensitivity is expected of the press but in terms of breaching the code, that principle was clearly decided by the code committee to be one on which the most egregious breaches might be found.

Obviously there is a fear there, particularly related to news ending up on social media, that young people are in a position now to research means of suicide and that is obviously to be avoided.