Despite the news of pop icon Anita Mui Yim-fong's death taking up most of the front pages, a suicide story managed to make its way to the front of Apple Daily's second section during that week. It was a gruesome story - a man first throws his struggling wife out of the window of their high-rise apartment, then hurls himself after her.
The story was accompanied by pictures of crying relatives huddled in a hospital corridor, a graphic reconstruction showing how the scene may have looked to a passing bird, and a photo of the apartment with a downward-pointing arrow to show that gravity was still doing its work in pulling the two to their death.
As if to banish any doubt, there was also a photograph of the man's foot peeking out from under a blanket as the body lay skewered on balcony railings.
But according to suicide experts, such graphic reporting of a suicide may mean that it is only a matter of time before it is repeated.
'Suicide tends to be copied because of the kind of behaviour it is,' said Dr Annette Beautrais, a leading suicide expert from New Zealand, who gave a public lecture at the University of Hong Kong earlier this month. 'It is something with which people have a morbid fascination, and a behaviour [whereby] vulnerable, mentally ill people may identify with others who have died in this way, seeing it as a solution for their own problems.'
Although she said that it was nearly impossible to conduct research on whether media reports caused the rate of suicide to rise, Dr Beautrais said there was enough evidence linking the two to justify bringing in guidelines for journalists in Hong Kong. 'There is a media fascination with suicide, and so the public becomes more interested,' she said.