Coroners Act 2006

Appointments, administration, powers, offences and penalties, and technical provisions - Offences and penalties

139: Publication of information in contravention of section 71

You could also call this:

"Breaking the rule about sharing details of self-inflicted deaths can lead to a fine"

You commit an offence if you publish or let someone else publish information that breaks the rules in section 71. This section is about not making public details of self-inflicted deaths. If you break this rule, you can get a fine. You can get a fine of up to $20,000 if you are a company, or up to $5,000 if you are an individual. This is what happens if you are found guilty of publishing information you should not have. The fine is a penalty for breaking the rule. If you have a website or other online system, you are not breaking the rule if someone else puts the information on your site. You are only responsible if you put the information on the site yourself. This means you are not in trouble if someone else does something wrong on your website.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM377895.

This page was last updated on 12 December 2025 — View changes

Topics:

Health and wellbeing > Public healthHealth and wellbeing > Mental healthCrime and justice > Criminal law

138: False or misleading statement for purposes of section 64(3), or

139A: Publication of information in contravention of section 74, or

"Breaking the rules about sharing certain information can lead to a fine."

Part 4Appointments, administration, powers, offences and penalties, and technical provisions
Offences and penalties

139Publication of information in contravention of section 71

A person commits an offence if the person publishes or permits to be published any information in contravention of section 71 (which relates to restrictions on the making public of details of self-inflicted deaths).
A person who commits an offence against subsection (1) is liable on conviction,—
in the case of a body corporate, to a fine not exceeding $20,000:
in any other case, to a fine not exceeding $5,000.

Subsection (1) does not apply to a person who hosts material on Internet sites or other electronic retrieval systems that can be accessed by a user, unless the specific information has been placed or entered on the site or system by that person.

Notes

Section 139: replaced, on 21 July 2016, by section 71 of the Coroners Amendment Act 2016 (2016 No 29).