Call to change suicide coverage
THE new chairman of the Education Commission yesterday urged the media to be more ''considerate'' to victims and readers in reporting child suicide cases.
Professor Rosie Young Tse-tse said all media reports were highly influential, citing a 1988 case in which a student at Hongkong University committed suicide after her full name was published following a theft case.
The vice chairman of the Newspaper Society of Hongkong, Mr Paul Hui Hau-tung, who is general manager of Ming Pao, said he would raise the reporting of student suicide at the group's next meeting in February.
''The recent student suicides are alarming and I will ask members to consider student suicide coverage, how to discourage youngsters from committing suicide, and to give them a different attitude,'' he said.
Mr Hui said he was not sure whether emphasising student suicides through prominent placement, sensational treatment or inclusion of personal details such as names and photographs glorified suicide victims or encouraged copycat suicides.
A visiting American adviser to the Education Department, Ms Diana Ryerson, suggested last year that the Hongkong media take a lead from some American newspapers which had come to a mutual agreement not to include names or photographs or give front-page treatment to suicide cases.
These papers also listed help services and telephone numbers next to reports, she said.
However, Mr Hui said freedom of the press was important and proprietors did not tend to dictate to editors what photographs and stories to use.
Professor Young said: ''We should not just put the blame on schools, principals, parents or the media.'' She said the Education Commission would study work being done by different interested parties before making recommendations on the rising trend of child suicide.
Professor Young said that increasing the number of social workers at schools alone was not enough because most children who committed or attempted suicide might not have apparent behavioural problems such as smoking or drinking.
