Police in Germany reported on Saturday that they found the body of a 24-year-old Mexican woman who disappeared in Berlin at the end of July and whose case has garnered widespread attention in Mexico.
  • Marshell@feddit.de
    18·
    11 months ago

    I don’t know the details or have any more information, but there is a background as to reporting suicides in Germany.

    Usually, it is consensus between the German news outlets not to report suicides, unless it has been committed by a person of interest, usually a celebrity. This is not a law or otherwise enforced, but a common understanding of the outlets amongst each other, so there will be no promotion of suicide. Here is a source (in German, unfortunately, explaining the reasoning: https://www.deutschlandfunk.de/sagen-meinen-warum-medien-nicht-ueber-selbstmord-schreiben-100.html)

    To me, this seems to be a plausible reason for the vague language, but again, I don’t know.

    • philpo@feddit.de
      5·
      11 months ago

      Additionally it isn’t as obvious as one might think to rule out wrongdoing - what if she was drugged and then thrown into the canal,etc. These investigations take some time, often weeks, and are especially difficult the longer the person is deceased and even more so for bodies that were exposed to water for a long time.

      It simply wouldn’t be a sensible idea to now declare the case a suicide only to revert the statement later on when something highly unlikely turns up.

      Basically the current wording is a hint that the police has some evidence that it was suicidal, but did not rule out all other causes yet.