Today, an event was held at the Press Council on the topic "Media and coverage of suicide incidents".

According to APA, Chairman of the Press Council Aflatun Amashov, who congratulated the journalists on the occasion of the National Press Day on July 22, said that the number of suicide news reported in the media is increasing in recent days.

Aflatun Amashov said that the causes of suicide are left aside, the tendency to heroize those who commit suicide is noticeable:

"This can lead to further suicides.

Domestic problems, parent-child relationship, parents' insistence, social problems, poverty can lead people to commit suicide.

The purpose of the media should be to investigate the reasons that lead people to commit suicide and try to eliminate the causes of these suicides together with relevant institutions.

The Chairman of the Press Council in Scandinavian countries does not give wide coverage to the news about suicides:

"If the cause of suicide is related to a social motive, mass media and journalists in Scandinavian countries are investigating.

However, if there is a suicide related to domestic violence, such news is not included.

What should we do to prevent such situations from happening in Azerbaijan?

As a result of the discussion, we will address the journalists of the country."

Shamseddin Aliyev, Chairman of the "Police Support" Public Union, said that 800,000 people committed suicide in the world during the year:

"In Latvia, Lithuania and Russia, the number of suicides in relation to the population is high, 40 people per 100,000 people.

In countries like the USA and Finland, there are 20-30 people per 100,000 people.

Shamseddin Aliyev noted that the main cause of suicides is domestic violence:

"Domestic violence makes people more likely to commit suicide.

There is no national program to prevent domestic violence.

When couples get married, they do not take an oath of loyalty to the family.

Taking the oath of loyalty to the family should be resolved accordingly.

By the way, ANAS should have a research institute that studies the causes of suicides so that these causes can be identified and eliminated.

In particular, our religious leaders should be active in propagating the inadmissibility of suicide.

Because our religion is against suicide.

In our religion, it is said not to perform the funeral prayer of a person who commits suicide.

Points in this direction should be preached in our religion."

Aflatun Amashov pointed out that in some cases, relatives and parents of those who commit suicide are made to talk:

"In that situation, how correct is it to talk to those people?

Maybe those people are not aware of what they are talking about.

Therefore, our journalists should be sensitive in this matter."

Vugar Rahimzadeh, member of the Board of Directors of the Press Council, editor-in-chief of "Iki sahil" newspaper, said that recently there have been reports of cases of suicide of minors:

"Those minors probably don't know why they committed suicide.

Therefore, the special coverage of such cases has a negative effect on the psychology of minors.

Therefore, our media should be sensitive to such issues."

The member of the Milli Majlis, Hikmet Babaoglu, considered it necessary to have statistics reflecting which part of suicide cases are related to domestic violence or social problems:

"Without such statistics, we will have difficulty finding a way out.

As for the media, in this case, the media faces a dilemma: should it approach the issue from the perspective of media interests or from the perspective of public responsibility?

Media is one of the institutions of society.

Therefore, for the sake of public interests, the media should put their interests on the third and fourth line."

Aydın Guliyev, the editor-in-chief of "Baku-Kharba" newspaper, noted that it is unacceptable for suicides related to domestic problems to appear in the media:

"Why should suicide cases be investigated in TV shows?"

The rating of such programs should be removed from the lists, advertising for those programs should be prevented."

Honored journalist Azer Hasrat emphasized the importance of removing criminal news from the media:

"The child sees that someone committed suicide and everyone is talking about him.

He thinks that a person committed suicide and became famous, and he can become famous in this way.

If a neighbor has a fight with a neighbor in the village, why should the media cover it again and again?

By the way, they show the family, relatives and all descendants of the veteran who committed suicide last time.

The media should refrain from such situations as they have a bad effect on people.

We would like that if such a situation happens in our family, the whole country will recognize our family members in connection with this incident?".

Akif Ashirli, editor-in-chief of "Sharq" newspaper today drew attention to the fact that social media creates the opportunity for every individual to become a journalist:

"There were opinions that the media should not report criminal news, restrictions should be imposed.

To what extent is it possible to achieve this?

Simply, the media should prefer an educational approach.

Completely isolating the media from the processes taking place in society ultimately leads to the replacement of non-professionals, another system.

Of course, we must see whether there is a public motive in suicide cases.

If the suicide is related to a domestic problem, illness, it is not acceptable to cover it.

The causes of suicide should be investigated and revealed in a comprehensive way.

The activity of the media should be aimed at preventing suicides."

Asif Marzili, the editor-in-chief of the "Tazadlar" newspaper, said that after the 1990s, artificial and synthetic food increased people's tendency to violence:

"The cause of suicide is problems, those problems must be eliminated."

Chief editor of "525 newspaper" Rashad Majid believes that suicide is primarily desertion.

After the discussions, an appeal to the country's journalists was accepted.

It was noted that freedom of speech and expression is important for society, and it is important to provide information about suicide incidents to society.

However, speculations around the issue are not allowed.

It was emphasized that the suicide case should not become a subject for the sake of collecting views and expanding the viewership.

In the appeal, journalists, people who state that they are engaged in journalistic activity in one way or another, are called upon to approach the presentation of suicide incidents extremely seriously, to refrain from revealing the horrific, individual and personal motives of the incident in these incidents, and to highlight only the points of public importance:

"We would like to believe that this call based on the bigotry of our colleagues will be treated sensitively, and mobilization and a responsible position will be ensured for the elimination of the negative tendencies we have mentioned."