Seimas bans reporting method of suicide

The Seimas passed on Tuesday amendments to the Provision of Information to the Public, banning public information producers from reporting about why and how a person took his or her life.

The amendments also prohibit representing suicide as a solution to a problem or as a normal everyday occurrence, as well as glamorizing suicide.

Under the existing law, public information producers “must protect and respect the human right to privacy in the event of death or disease” and “must not mention personal data when announcing news about suicides or suicide attempts”.

The rules for depicting suicide cases are laid down in the Code of Ethics in Providing Information to the Public.

The code does not allow mentioning the method used in a completed or attempted suicide in headlines and disclosing specific details of the method in any content, but there is no blanket ban on reporting the method of suicide.

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