Friday, August 17, 2007
Posted by The Dean of Cincinnati
According to standard media ethics, reporting on suicide should be avoided. Even the World Health Organization has this document, outlining guidelines for media professionals. The Cincinnati Enquirer, however, has no such standards, and once again they have decided to provide details about how someone decided to commit suicide. (Read about their first mistake here.) This is an irresponsible lapse in ethics on behalf of The Enquirer.
The following comes from the WHO media guide:
Detailed descriptions of the method used and how the method was procured should be avoided. Research has shown than the media coverage of suicide has a greater impact on the method of suicide adopted than the frequency of suicides.
The following comes from this article in The Enquirer:
Lebanon police said they stopped Stephen K. Young, 53, Wednesday afternoon at Mound Street and Columbus Avenue. After the vehicle came to a stop, the driver suddenly drank something police did not immediately identify.
Young, an assistant Warren County dog warden, was flown by helicopter to Miami Valley Hospital, where he died Wednesday night.
(...)
Warren County Administrator Dave Gully said Young took sodium phentobarbital from the animal shelter, where it is kept in a locked cabinet. Young had access to the drug because part of his job was to euthanize animals.
I’m not sure it’s newsworthy that some relatively unknown person committed suicide. I’m not trying to diminish this man’s life, but why is there a news story about it—particularly when all the experts agree that such news stories can actually have the affect of promoting more suicides?
How do reporters like Elaine Trumpey sleep at night?
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