I posted this a few minutes ago at WhaleOil - forgive me for repeating my comments here but there are some profound issues here relating to the Coroner's Act and media reporting of suicides in New Zealand.

I studied the effects of media reporting on suicide last year and in my view Matenga's ruling is a damned shame in light of what I found.

New Zealand has one of the world's toughest regimes on media reporting of individual suicides. Despite this our suicide rates (particularly youth) are amongst the highest in the developed world. Maori youth are more vulnerable than others with a rate 2.5 times higher than non-Maori. Clearly restrictions on suicide reporting do not work.

Ironically studies in Europe have shown that media reporting can actually be associated with positive outcomes when reporting sensitively focuses on positive outcomes in times of adversity, such as coping with suicide ideation.

If media coverage has been linked to positive outcomes (as it has in Europe), then restrictions on suicide reporting in New Zealand (like those imposed by Matenga) constrain the opportunity for positive outcomes.

Late last year, Chief Coroner Judge Neil MacLean commented that “we need to gently bring the issue of suicide from out of the shadows” - Matenga needs to get out of the shadows and sign on to making a positive difference.