
Recommendations for media

Recommendations for media
Features that may help to prevent imitation:
- No sensationalism
- No front page reporting/prominent placement
- No photos
- No repetition of reporting/repeated coverage
- No detailed descriptions of suicide methods
- No names/characteristics of the suicidal persons
- No citing/printing of farewell letters/suicide notes
- Not mentioning online suicide forums/websites
- Not mentioning suicide pacts
- Not mentioning the location
- Not mentioning other suicides at the same place (hotspots)
- Not mentioning suicide clusters
- Not speaking of "series/epidemic of suicides" (contagion)
- Considering the language, e.g. not using the terms "committed suicide",
- "a successful/unsuccessful suicide"
- Clarifying myths about suicide
- No simplistic explanation
- Not reporting suicide as understandable solution
- Not glorifying suicide (heroism, romanticism)
- Not paying special attention to celebrity suicides
- Not mentioning positive consequences of suicide
- Reporting suicide within the context of mental illness
- Listing warning signs for suicide
- Not interviewing relatives/people bereaved by suicide
- Referring to possibilities to prevent suicide
- Describing individual coping strategies to master a crisis
- Referring to help in general
- Information on help agencies
- Information on hotlines
- Information on self-help groups
- Guidelines for media reporting of suicide should include a section on fictional reporting of suicidal behaviour
- Guidelines for media reporting of suicide should include a section on reporting suicidal behaviour in the new media