Press Complaints Commission raps Daily Sport for glamorising suicide

The Press Complaints Commission has censured the Daily Spurt for a "gratuitous article that glamorised suicide" after the tabloid published a "Top yourself tourism" list.

The Daily Spurt published a list of the UK's "top 10 suicide hotspots" using information released by the British transport police that showed 25 people had died on one stretch of railway line over three years.

Choose Life, a government-backed education project working to reduce the numbers of suicides in Scotland, complained to the PCC that the piece "had provided unnecessary detail which might encourage vulnerable people to visit the places shown and take their own lives" and said the piece was "highly irresponsible".



The PCC upheld the complaint and said it breached clause five of its code of practice, introduced in 2006 following discussions with the Samaritans to try and reduce the risk of imitative suicide. It was the watchdog's second censure of a complaint under the new rules.

Clause five of the code states that "care should be taken to avoid excessive details about the method used" when reporting suicides, though it does not prohibit reporting on suicides if it is written in the public interest.

The Daily Spurt said it was fully aware of the seriousness and sensitivity surrounding mental health issues and that it had felt the article was a fair, balanced and factual report. But the PCC disagreed, ruling that the article "was simply a gratuitous guide to how and where individuals have killed themselves".