Movie star suicide sparks wave of copycat deaths

SEOUL, Thursday (AFP) A celebrity suicide has triggered a wave of copycat suicides in South Korea in the past month, with wall-to-wall media coverage of the high-profile death blamed for the phenomenon.

The number of suicides jumped 2.5 times from an average 0.84 to 2.13 people a day following the death of Lee Eun-Joo, a 24-year-old movie star a month ago, according to Seoul prosecution authorities. Lee hanged herself after succumbing to a bout of depression on February 22.

Officials at Seoul central district prosecution office said 49 people committed suicide in 23 days immediately after her death in the seven districts in central and southern Seoul under its jurisdiction. In contrast, 45 people killed themselves during 53 days before Lee's death.

Officials also noted that the number of young people killing themselves was significant.

One in three of the suicides that occured since Lee's death involved people in their 20s, up 15.5 percent from the number of people in their 20s - the same age bracket as Lee - killing themselves in the previous period. Even more striking, hanging became the overwhelming method of choice for suicides. The number of hangings jumped from 53.3 percent of all suicides prior to Lee's death to 79.6 percent for the following month.

"What is significant in this discovery is that concrete statistics confirmed what we might only have been able to assume," senior prosecutor Seok Dong-Hyun told AFP.

"We couldn't find any other possible explanations for this phenomenon but the so-called 'Werther Effect' following the death of Lee Eun-Joo," he said.

The "Werther Effect" refers to the spate of copycat suicides in Europe in the late 18th century triggered by Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther," in which the young protagonist shoots himself after being crossed in love.

Lee's took her own life just as a promising career was taking off following starring roles in a blockbuster film and a popular TV series. The tragedy sparked a media frenzy. TV channels, newspapers as well as Internet news providers devoted prolonged coverage to the tragedy and the depression that led to it.

"The star's suicide appeared to have caused many vulnerable individuals to carry out what they had only been thinking about before," the prosecutor said.

"You can't blame news media necessarily, but I suspect that some Internet news providers catering to young users might have gone to the extreme in divulging unnecessary details about her death."

South Korean news media have their own guidelines on reporting suicides or suicidal behaviour to prevent copycat suiciduse of the death in details.