SUICIDE AND PUBLIC INTEREST IN THE SPANISH PRESS: ANALYSIS FROM THE CONSTITUTIONAL JURISPRUDENCE ON FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

Abstract

Introduction: Every year, more than 700,000 people commit suicide worldwide, and in Spain, it has been the leading cause of external death since 2008. Although it is a public health problem, the press follows the general rule of not reporting on suicide for fear of generating a contagion or "Werther effect," reflecting society’s silence on self-induced death. This constitutes a form of self-censorship against the freedom of information enshrined in Article 20.1.d) of the Spanish Constitution, which is only broken in specific and/or extreme cases, contributing to a distorted projection of suicide. Objective: The Spanish Constitutional Court points to public interest as a necessary requirement for news in the event of a potential conflict with other rights that limit the right to information. This article confronts suicide with this notion, analyzing whether press publications about suicide meet this legal public interest, not always equivalent to journalistic interest, making them legitimate in the face of the limits of freedom of information and the rule of silence. Methodology: The jurisprudence of the Spanish Constitutional Court regarding the public interest in information has been thoroughly reviewed, and this legal argument has been compared with a self-produced database of news about suicide published between 2013 and 2022. Results: Without expressly mentioning suicide, but not excluding it, the Constitutional Court does recognize the relevance of other matters that, by analogy, allow us to infer the general interest of self-induced death. Geographic bias, the notoriety of the person, or the potential impact on society, but never the satisfaction of others' curiosity, determine its public relevance, arguable against the limits of freedom of information. Discussion and Conclusions: Despite its abstract public interest, an examination of constitutional jurisprudence shows how well-founded each piece of information on suicide must be, especially when the protagonist is an anonymous citizen, to comply with the constitutional limit on freedom of information. Self-censorship has hindered the possibility of this public health problem being legitimately debated in public opinion.