Quality of Thai media reporting of suicidal behavior: Compliance against the World Health Organization media guidelines

Abstract

BackgroundAlthough media reporting has influence on suicide there has no report in Thailand regarding the quality of media in reporting suicidal news. ObjectivesThis study aimed to assess the quality of English language media reports of suicidal behaviors in Thailand against the World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines. MethodsWe scrutinized the suicide news contents of four purposively selected English language newspapers in Thailand. Using Google search function of the online newspapers, the keywords of “suicide”, “hanging self”, and “drink poison” were used to search the suicide-related news contents. ResultsThe vast majority of English newspapers in Thailand reported harmful information in reporting suicide-related news. Almost all reported locations where the suicide took place, methods of suicide, gender and age of the victim. Approximately one-fourth also showed a picture of the person who died by suicide. ConclusionsThe English online newspaper in Thailand did not follow the WHO media guidelines in reporting suicide news. Harmful information to the readers was presented in both title and content of the news. Meanwhile, potentially helpful information such as who to contact or where to seek help had been rarely reported.