Madam, – I would like coroner John Cannon to explain how the reporting of individual suicide cases in the media can be done “in a new mode of acceptable reporting in a way that does justice to the social realities involved” without adding to the grief of the bereaved (Home News, June 11th).
His claim that suicide was becoming very prominent in Ireland because deaths had not been given precedence in the traditional media does not stand up. There seems to me to have been more than adequate examination and debate of the subject in a general way. If he is arguing that there should be more comprehensive coverage of individual suicides so that we can better understand what motivates individuals to take their own lives, I believe he won’t find many supporters among editors and journalists.
In 16 years as editor of a regional newspaper I never once used a report of self-inflicted death and did not carry reports of suicide cases from the coroners’ courts. If Mr Cannon considers that to be “evasion” and “cover-up”, and that suicide cases ought to be placed in the same category as road accident deaths for the purpose of educating the public about this “tragic phenomenon”, then I believe him to be mistaken.
Of course there should be a more vigorous and transparent examination of the subject, but not in the way he suggests. – Yours, etc,