Guidelines For Media Reporting On Suicide

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 (Bernama) -- The media are being advised not to sensationalise coverage of suicide, such as publishing suicide reports as front page headlines, as well as, detailed descriptions of the methods being used.
These were contained in the Health Ministry's guidelines for media reporting on suicide which were distributed to the media, Monday.
The "Guidelines for Media Reporting on Suicide" included the five do's and five don’ts on the reporting on suicide cases, which were jointly drafted by representatives from the media organisations and the Health Ministry.
Among the do's are that the media need to insert positive messages that suicides are preventable, there is a need to work closely with authorities in presenting the facts of news, including printing help-line at the bottom of the newspaper, besides creating a code of ethics on reporting news on suicide.
On the don’ts, it said the media should not publish photographs or suicide notes, victim's names, and not "put cultural stereotypes in movies and dramas."
The guidelines, which include feedback from non-governmental organisations such as the International Association for Suicide Prevention, The Befrienders and Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, took nearly a year to be drafted.
The guidelines which are also based on the "Preventing Suicide - Resource For Media Professionals" by World Health Organisation 2000 required the media to exercise several considerations when reporting on suicides.
These included the need to interpret statistics carefully and correctly, and to ensure authenticity and reliability of the sources.
The media are also advised not to generalise on figures, and avoiding the usage of words such as "suicide epidemic" or "the place with the highest suicide rate in the world."
"Suicides should not be depicted as a method of coping with personal problems such as bankruptcy, examination failure or sexual abuse, it said.
The media should to take into account the impact of suicide on families in terms of stigma and psychological suffering, emphasise on mourning the person's death and not to glorify suicide victims as objects of public adulation.
However, the media can describe the physical consequences of non-fatal suicidal attempts -- brain damage, paralysis as this can act as a deterrent.