MEDIA REPORTS on the suicide of British film director Tony Scott prompted some concern from Time to Change, a UK group dedicated to improving coverage of mental health issues – it tweeted that it had seen examples of bad reporting, while the Samaritans took the opportunity to reissue its media guidelines.
Most (but not all) news outlets avoided inappropriate and discouraged phrases such as “committed suicide” or “successful suicide attempt”, but in detailing the location and height of the Los Angeles bridge from which Scott jumped, and reporting witness statements, many outlets arguably ignored established advice to “avoid explicit or technical details of suicide in reports”.
It is arguable, because the word “explicit” is open to interpretation.
Other aspects of the coverage of Scott’s death seem like more clear cut breaches of the good practices espoused by organisations such as the Samaritans, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention and the Irish monitoring group Headline.
“Avoid simplistic explanations”, “avoid labelling places as suicide ‘hotspots’” and avoid publishing images of suicide locations count among the Samaritan guidelines.
But ABC News was quick to suggest that Scott was suffering from brain cancer, and even quicker to admit, after Scott’s family apparently denied the story, that it could not confirm its claim.
The Los Angeles Times, meanwhile, was among those to publish an image of the bridge – in its case accompanying a breakdown of the various Hollywood movies in which it had featured.
