Reading Chronicle condemned over detail in suicide report
The Press Complaints Commission (PCC) has upheld a complaint against local Berkshire paper, The Reading Chroncicle, for a report on the suicide that revealed too much information, making it possible for copycat suicides.
The media have to be responsible in their reporting of inquests to stop people copying suicides. There is plenty of evidence that while much of the information is available courtesy of Google, and the while growth of social media might have brought a wealth of support for the desperate, it has also delivered chat rooms dedicated to suicide when it is laid out on a plate in the local newspaper it has an impact on people who are considering killing themselves.
However, while the rules exist, I suspect they have become more difficult to follow and much of the sensationalist reporting has been fuelled by the erosion of police services.
In recent years many police forces have withdrawn press office support from the management of inquest information. Whenever possible there prefer to defer informing the media about any details, leaving it for the inquest to act as full discovery.
When I was a journalist I covered far too many suicides and my relationship with the police as a crime reporter meant I would often know almost too much information. Much of this would not be reported before an inquest, but it did take the drama out of what was always a tragic tale. Knowing this information would, most often or not, help frame responsible reporting. Now, journalists I know talk about going into inquests blind and say this can lead to more excitement about the information revealed.
When I was a police press officer with Thames Valley Police I always sought to have a sufficiently healthy relationship with the media that you could guide them on such issues and ensure that reports would respect families wherever possible. This kind of crisis management often spared families from the media spotlight; many times they never even knew what they had escaped. We still offer this kind of crisis management when such victims are referred to us.
Throw into the mix the decline of the all important role of sub editors as newspapers contract and there is an ever great risk that stories will not be subjected to the necessary scrutiny.