reporting


should you go into when those ‘facts’ involve a person dying by suicide? According to Lorna Fraser from the


The facts on suicide “


Sophie Goodchild warns against providing harmful information R


eporting the facts behind a story is central to every journalist’s job. But how much detail


suicide can especially influence the vulnerable, including young people who share details by social media, says Fraser.


“When [US comedian] Robin


Samaritans, the answer is ‘none at all’ if these concern the method used to end a life. “There’s compelling evidence that certain types of media reporting are linked to increased suicide rates, and this is strongest around stories about method,” says Fraser, who leads the charity’s media advisory service. More than 6,000 people die through


suicide every year in the UK and Ireland, a figure that charities including the Samaritans say they are working hard to reduce. That is why the charity is developing new guidance for the media with the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO). The aim is to ensure vulnerable


people are not put at risk by insensitive coverage, while at the same time supporting journalists in improving public understanding of what is still often a taboo topic.


Regular blogs will be published on the Samaritans’ website until the end of this year on subjects such as suicides in public places, self-harm and deaths of young people. This is the latest move by the charity


to broaden understanding in the media and highlight the importance of sensitive reporting. In 2006, its lobbying resulted in wording being added to the Editors’ Code of Practice on avoiding excessive detail on suicides, and this became a clause in its own right two years ago. IPSO also issued advice last year on the need for journalists to take ‘great care’ over the information they include in a story. Stories on celebrity deaths that romanticise or glorify the idea of


12 | theJournalist


Williams died, there was this sense of him as a tragic genius,” she points out. “You get people in a dark place reading about how someone took their own life and they imitate this, especially if it’s a new method. It’s safest not to publish any details of the way they died, and definitely not technical information such as the number of pills if it’s an overdose.” As a journalist who has lost a loved one to suicide, Poorna Bell says she welcomes guidance that leads to more responsible reporting. The former executive editor at the


Huffington Post has written extensively about her husband Rob’s struggle with depression and his death, in both the press and her book Chase the Rainbow. An issue for her is national outlets using tweets that mention how someone died. “When you’re looking at a feed, you don’t have the option of editing what you see,” she explains. “It can be incredibly triggering for those vulnerable to suicide and to those like me who have lost someone.” Another area for change, says Bell, is to end the use of the phrase ‘committed suicide’. The term dates from when taking your own life was illegal before the law was changed in 1961.


Stephen Habgood, whose son


Christopher ended his own life in 2009, agrees. Habgood chairs Papyrus, a charity working to prevent young deaths, and believes that ‘committed suicide’ is ‘an anachronistic and inappropriate’ expression. He says he has challenged newspapers over their use of the phrase. So how can newspapers improve their reporting in addition to changing their use of language and content?


Fraser is keen to stress the


You get people in a dark place reading about how someone took their own life and they imitate this


”


Samaritans/IPSO initiative is not about controlling or censoring the press. Suicide is a major public health issue that needs debating, she points out, and she wants to raise awareness by ‘helping journalists doing a difficult job’. Fraser’s advice to reporters is to try to represent the positive using case studies of those who have been in a dark place then turned their lives around. She says: “Suicide is not inevitable


– if you get help you can come out the other side. And it’s those stories of hope that inspire others to realise their own lives are worth living.”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28