Reckless media reports encourage suicides, say experts at HKU centre

Irresponsible media reporting of suicides encourages copycats and may even trigger an epidemic, warn experts from the University of Hong Kong's Centre for Suicide Research and Prevention.

It also caused additional hurt and put pressure on victims' families, a seminar heard yesterday.

One woman was invited to give a first-hand account of the threat. Jeannie Wu Chun-yu said sensational reports on pop star Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing's suicide had brought out more negative emotions in her ex-husband, who was battling depression at the time. He ultimately committed suicide.

"When he read about [Cheung's] suicide, he said that seemed like a pretty good way to die," she said.

Her husband's first attempt at suicide, and his death, were picked up by Chinese media, and an online report used animation and photos taken from social media sites, and contained factual errors.

"The toughest was when [the video news clip] came out … it was explicit. They had photos of his body … there was also a lot of sensationalising, parts of which were made up," said Wu.

"I did media studies at university and some of my family were involved in the media industry, so we could handle it better than other people.