Reporting tips

If you’re worried about someone you've been interviewing, trust your instinct – if you’re concerned, you’re probably right.  Ask how the person is feeling and listen to the answer. Let them talk. However, if you feel out of your depth, you have deadlines to meet and time doesn’t allow you to stay with them, or you think that they may need professional help, try to find them the support they need.

Ask the person you're concerned about to talk to someone they trust and feel will listen – a friend, neighbour, family member, teacher, GP, a doctor or Samaritans. Samaritans provides confidential emotional support to anyone in crisis, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Trained volunteers listen, without judgement and without giving advice.

You can contact Samaritans on 08457 90 90 90 in the UK or 1850 60 9090 in the Republic of Ireland for the cost of a local call. You can also drop into your local branch (address and telephone number in your local phone book), e-mail jo@samaritans.org or write to Samaritans, PO Box 90 90, Stirling, FK8 2SA.

 

1. Avoid explicit or technical details of suicide in reports.

Providing details of the mechanism and procedure used to carry out a suicide may lead to the imitation of suicidal behaviour by other people at risk.

For example, reference can be given to an overdose but not reference to the specific type and number of tablets used. Similarly, saying someone "hanged themselves" is better than saying they "hanged themselves using their own school shirt from their bedroom door".

Particular care should be taken in specifying the type and number of tablets used in an overdose and material / method used in hanging and ligatures. In retrospective reporting or reconstructions, actual depiction of means should be avoided, for example showing the drawing of blood in self-harm. Use of a long shot or a cutaway is better.

 

2. Avoid simplistic explanations for suicide.

Although a catalyst may appear to be obvious, suicide is never the result of a single factor or event and is likely to have several inter-related causes. Accounts which try to explain a suicide on the basis of a single incident, for example unrequited romantic feelings, should be challenged. Where relevant, news features could be used to provide more detailed analysis of the reasons behind the rise in suicides.

 

3. Avoid brushing over the realities of a suicide.

Depiction of suicide in a TV programme may be damaging if it shows a character who has attempted suicide as immediately recovered or if it glosses over the grim reality of suicide. For example, failing to show slow liver failure following a paracetamol overdose.

 

4. Avoid disclosing the contents of any suicide note.

This information may sensationalise or romanticise the suicide. It may also provide information which encourages other people to identify with the deceased.

 

5. Discourage the use of permanent memorials.

An outpouring of grief and expressions of regret may send unhelpful messages to other distressed and potentially suicidal people.

 

6. Avoid labelling places as suicide ‘hotspots’.

Advertising such locations provides detail about methods of suicide and may play a part in drawing more people to that location.

 

7. Don't overemphasise the ‘positive’ results of a person's suicide.

A dangerous message from the media is that suicide achieves results; it makes people sorry or it makes people eulogise you. For instance, a soap opera storyline or newspaper coverage where a child's suicide or suicide attempt seems to result in separated parents reconciling or school bullies being publicly shamed may offer an appealing option to a despairing child in similar circumstances.

 

8. Encourage public understanding of the complexity of suicide.

People don’t decide to take their own life in response to a single event, however painful that event may be, and social conditions alone cannot explain suicide either. The reasons an individual takes their own life are manifold, and suicide should not be portrayed as the inevitable outcome of serious personal problems. Discussing the risk factors encourages a better understanding of suicide as part of a much wider issue and challenge for society.

 

9. Expose the common myths about suicide.

There is an opportunity to educate the public by challenging these common myths.

 

10. Consider the timing.

The coincidental deaths by suicide of two or more people make the story more topical and newsworthy, but additional care is required in the reporting of ‘another suicide, just days after…’, which might imply a connection.

 

11. Don’t romanticise suicide or make events surrounding it sound melodramatic.

Wanting your readers and audience to identify with the person that has died or the event is natural but reporting which overly highlights community expressions of grief may suggest the local community is honouring the suicidal behaviour of the deceased person, rather than mourning their death. Reporting suicide as a tragic waste and an avoidable loss is more beneficial in preventing further deaths.

 

12. Include details of further sources of information and advice.

Listing appropriate sources of local and national help or support at the end of an article or a programme shows the person who might be feeling suicidal that they are not alone and that they have the opportunity to make positive choices. Samaritans is available for anyone in any type of distress on 08457 90 90 90 in the UK or 1850 60 90 90 in the Republic of Ireland or by email at jo@samaritans.org

The charity receives calls about loneliness and isolation, relationship and family problems, bereavement, financial worries, job-related stress, redundancy, bullying and exam stress as well as calls from people feeling suicidal. Samaritans’ Press Office can offer advice about depiction and can help put you in contact with acknowledged experts on suicide: +44 (0)20 8394 8300 during work hours or +44 (0)7943 809 162 out of work hours.

 

13. Remember the effect on survivors of suicide – either those who have attempted it or who have been bereaved.

It might be helpful to be able to offer interviewees some form of support such as information about Samaritans, or for those who are bereaved by suicide, information about The Compassionate Friends, Cruse or Survivors of Bereavement by Suicide.

 

14. Look after yourself.

Reporting suicide can be very distressing in itself, especially if the subject touches something in your own experience. Talk it over with colleagues, friends, family or Samaritans.

How Samaritans can help

Samaritans’ Press Office is available 24 hours a day for consultation on any media enquiry or sources of support:

During working hours: +44 (0)20 8394 8300
Out of hours contact: +44 (0)7943 809162

Samaritans worked with the Press Complaints Commission in 2006 to address the factual reporting of suicide. Find out more about the PCC ruling.

 

“I found it extremely useful to have such a knowledgeable and professional organisation to approach for advice when I was covering the sensitive issue of suicide and young people. The story I was covering about two young men taking their own lives happened shortly after the Bridgend suicides and I was anxious not to include anything that could trigger further incidents.”

Jennifer Sugden, Reporter, Scottish Daily Mail