Health ministry advises reporters to refrain from covering suicide cases
People visit booths at a suicide prevention expo at Cheonggye Plaza in Jongno District, Seoul, Sept. 12. Yonhap
Korea's health ministry and a journalist association on Wednesday released revised reporting guidelines on suicide news amid the rising number of people taking their own lives in the country.
The revised guidelines propose refraining from reporting suicide cases as the top principle to prevent potential copycat suicide attempts, according to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and the Journalists Association of Korea.
"If we change how we report on suicide cases, we can save precious lives," Second Vice Health Minister Park Min-soo said in a statement, urging individual social media accounts and blogs to follow the guidelines as well.
The guidelines also advise that, when coverage of suicide cases is unavoidable, news reports should avoid providing details of the methods or motives involved and respect the dignity of the victim as well as the surviving family members.
Korea, meanwhile, has the highest suicide rate among member nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In 2020, the suicide rate in Korea was 24.1 per 100,000 people, compared to the OECD average of 11.3.
Last year, 13,770 people took their own lives in Korea, a 6.7 percent increase from the previous year, government data showed. (Yonhap)