Incentives of self-willed death in journalism

Research presented in the article shows that responsible reporting of suicides is excluded from the agenda of Lithuanian media. Content analysis of the five largest Lithuanian internet sites reveals that these media channels do not conform to the majority of the recommendations by the World Health Organization on the responsible reporting of suicides. Presented research raises a hypothesis that the high flow of information on the suicide of famous Lithuanian TV person Aurimas Dautartas in the Lithuanian media could have had significant influence on the increase of suicide numbers in Lithuania (right after this tragic event in 2011). It is argued that the journalistic content on the matter of suicides (which may encourage suicidal behavior of vulnerable society members) is determined by various commercial, editorial, psychological, sociological, educational, legal and ethical factors. Therefore the handling of such a problem depends on the focused efforts of state institutions, educational offices, non-governmental organizations and the community of journalists and publishers