Sensitivity in reporting suicide

CEBU DAILY NEWS: HS Student hangs self

October 23, 2014

              This article contains sensitive case. Suicide stories like this should not be written in that manner. There are various people that have access to this online site especially in Cebu area so this article should not teach anyone how to commit a suicide.

              This article of Cebu Daily News, a regional branch of Philippine Daily Inquirer online newspaper portrays vividly all the scenes of the incident, including the method and the location of the suicide. In my opinion, as a journalist the writer should know that sensationalism is not an element of news. News is published to inform people, not to gain money whenever they purchase your paper. More than the company’s profit, a writer’s duty is to write a factual, objective and credible news article. Also, the victim’s name should not be published because this student is not a public personality, and as sensitivity for her family’s lost at her young age. Suicide cases usually are not to be explained how and why it happened to avoid imitative or copycat suicides.

                This article may be corrected if it does not identify the victim’s name and identity. Though it is good that this article does not tell what is written in her suicide note, it may be better if they only provide that a student committed a suicide without the malicious headline “Hangs self”.

2012-51417 (2)

(Editor’s note: In addition, it was not clear whether the police are investigating other possibilities such as foul play. The wordings of the article suggest CERTAINTY that indeed, the student hung herself. What about the possibility of foul play?)