The Australian Communications and Media Authority has found that Channel Nine breached regulatory safeguards when it broadcast a 60 Minutes feature last year on the suicide deaths of two Melbourne teenagers.

Are we even surprised? You can imagine the Nine/60 Minutes editorial brainstorm for that week, they would've looked at the newspaper reports and had ratings figures skyrocketing in their eyes, like money bags filling with gold coins in the eyes of Scrooge McDuck.

The authority found that the segment "contained a detailed description of the suicide method, and was not straightforward in its presentation of the facts".

"While the segment contained a warning, it did not precede the segment, as the code required," ACMA said in a statement.

ACMA said Nine had complied fully with the findings and had agreed to incorporate them into regular training for staff.

ACMA has also recommended that Nine put relevant help line numbers as part of reports and said it will be encouraging all broadcasters to do the same.

ACMA chairman Chris Chapman said reporting about suicide was complex for the media.

"While there are legitimate public interest reasons for covering certain incidents in news and current affairs programs, extreme care must be taken to ensure that stories of this nature do not inadvertently encourage vulnerable members of the community to imitate the behaviour," he said.

It's good to see Channel Nine taking this one on the chin, though they did try to whine and say "but we diiiiid do the right thing".

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