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Jumping the gun?

By Steven | April 18, 2011

Does Saturday’s front-page DomPost story break the law on reporting possible suicides? I think it does.

The story reports that Timothy Parlane was “killed by a train” shortly after police were warned that he was “suicidal”.

The Coroner’s Act prevents the publication of any particular relating to the manner of death when there’s reasonable cause to believe the death was self-inflicted… unless the Coroner has given permission. The story notes that the matter is before the coroner, but doesn’t say whether any such permission was given (or even sought).

However, the police tend to cut the media an awful lot of slack in enforcing this particular law, so I’m guessing nothing will come of it.

Topics: Journalism and criminal law | No Comments »

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