Recommendations for Reporting on Suicide
Based on more than 50 international studies on suicide contagion.
Guidance on reporting suicide
Produced by the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO).
Guidelines For Journalists Reporting Suicide
Produced by Papyrus.
Suicide Awareness and Prevention
List of resources compiled by Wristband Resources.
Samaritans media guidelines for reporting suicide
Sixth edition, launched in August 2020.
Association between suicide reporting in the media and suicide: systematic review and meta-analysis
Article published in the BMJ, March 2020.
Media reporting of suicide and adherence to media guidelines
This study, published in July 2018 in the International Journal of Social Psychiatry, examined the quality of media reporting of suicide and adherence to media guidelines in Ireland.
Why Suicide Reporting Guidelines Matter
By Luna Greenstein, National Alliance on Mental Illness, 15 June 2018.
High-profile newspaper coverage of suicide linked to ‘copy-cat suicides’
News report based on study published in The Lancet Psychiatry, 2 May 2014.
Standards of practice: Suicide reporting
Guidelines published by the Australian Press Council, 2 August 2011.
Winter Holiday Suicide Myth Continues to be Reinforced in Press
Press release from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 8 December 2010.
Media guidelines for reporting suicide and self-harm
Booklet from the Irish Association of Suicidology and the Samaritans, November 2010.
PCC upholds complaint over suicide reporting
Reading Chronicle published ‘excessive detail’ in an inquest report, 7 May 2009.
What’s the story? Reporting mental health and suicide
Published by Shift in 2008.
Preventing Suicide: A Resource for Media Professionals
Produced by WHO and IASP, 2008.
PCC rejects complaint by Madeleine Moon MP on coverage of the Bridgend suicides
Read the full adjudication, 1 December 2008.
Reporting suicide in the media
Report by Anna Siegel of POLIS event, published 1 December 2008.
PCC condemns Daily Sport ‘suicide guide’
Article by Press Gazette about the PCC adjudication against the Sport‘s ‘The top yourself 10’ article, 16 September 2008.
Covering Colleagues and Tragedy
Scott M Libin of Poynter Institute, discusses suicides among journalist colleagues, 6 April 2007.
Split decision
Michael Roberts, Denver Westworld, discusses the naming of a suicidal attorney, March 2007.
The Media and the Holiday Suicide Myth
Press release from the Annenberg Public Policy Center, 19 December 2005.
Suicide and the Media: Recommendations on Suicide Reporting for Media Professionals
From the Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention, University of Hong Kong, 2005.
Covering Teen Suicide: One Paper’s Decision
By Barbara Walsh of Portland Press Herald, published by Poynter Institute, 15 April 2005.
Death and self-censorship
Lawrence Eagle-Tribune‘s editor explains his paper’s coverage of a boy’s suicide, August 2004.
Two Suicides, Two Newsrooms, Two Decisions
Article by Matt Thompson of the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, 20 February 2004.
Covering Suicide
Three-part series by Meg Spratt for the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
Suicidal Behaviour and the Media: Findings from a systematic review of the research literature
By Kathryn Williams & Keith Hawton, Centre for Suicide Research, Oxford University.
Preventing Suicide – A Resource for Media Professionals
From the Department of Mental Health, World Health Organization, 2000.
Suicide and the Media – The reporting and portrayal of suicide in the media
A resource from the New Zealand Youth Suicide Prevention Strategy, 1999.
Coverage of Suicides
Guidelines from the Hong Kong Journalists Association.