Suicide reporting guidelines likely to change

The way the news media reports on suicide looks set to change after health experts and media representatives today found they shared common ground on the issue.

Prime Minister John Key last year directed the ministerial committee on suicide prevention to consider the appropriateness of the current suicide reporting guidelines after the Chief Coroner, Judge Neil MacLean, called for more debate on the issue.

Media representatives, mental health professionals and researchers met today as a first step towards updating the guidelines, which were drafted in 1999.

Associate Health Minister Peter Dunne, who chaired the meeting, said a working group would report back by the end of April with the aim of putting any new guidelines in place this year.

"It's too early to say but I think there will be some changes," Mr Dunne told NZPA.

"This is an important opportunity to really improve the understanding and handling of suicide in our public forums, and we do not want to just swap one set of words for another."

Mr Dunne said the response from media representatives at the meeting had been "pretty positive".

"When we went through the issues, we probably have far more in common than we might have imagined, so I think that there's a good atmosphere and I think there will be progress," he said.

"What was notable was the extent to which both media and clinicians generally agreed on the outcomes we are looking to achieve, and how to get there."

The meeting was originally set for last month but was delayed because of the Christchurch earthquake.

Mr Key's chief science adviser, Sir Peter Gluckman, and Judge MacLean were unable to attend. They would be briefed on today's meeting and brought into the process.

Mr Dunne said the meeting was able to achieve a lot despite Judge MacLean's absence.

"We went as far as getting a lot of things on the table which will be the subject of work over the next month or so."

Judge MacLean in August released a number of suicide statistics, including tables outlining what methods were used by people who took their own lives, and breakdowns of suicides by age groups and areas.

He said there were concerns news media reporting could cause copycat suicides but responsible reporting could potentially save lives.

Coroners are restricted by law in what information can be released, except name, age, occupation, and finding of self-inflicted death.

A study by a University of Otago researcher presented last year found many of the 15 journalists surveyed were not familiar with Ministry of Health guidelines for reporting suicide and most did not use them.

The findings were disputed by the Media Freedom Committee, which said editors and journalists clearly considered the guidelines when making decisions on covering suicides.