By Yuko Iseya

Almost every day news of suicides using hydrogen sulfide are reported. It has been covered on TV, newspapers, the Internet and in other sources of media. From the beginning of this April, the number of people who killed themselves in this way started to increase suddenly. Why did this way of suicide become the fad and become to be such a big social problem?

One reason may be due to the Japanese mass media and their tendency to overstress suicides caused by hydrogen sulfide, even though there are people who commit suicide by other ways. Regrettably, this kind of broadcasting makes the situation worse.

Several years ago, when student suicides caused by bullying increased rapidly, the media reported about it widely. At that time, they stressed only one point, "suicide caused by suffering from bullying" and whenever students committed suicide due to bullying, the media broadcast it repeatedly. As a result, far from stopping the student's suicide, it caused a vicious circle where many suicides happened in a short time.

As you see, a boom and a chain of suicides tend to occur in relation to how the mass media reports the suicides. I believe the media's current policy towards reporting suicides is wrong and sends the wrong message to young people, who are easily influenced. Can the right policy of reporting suicides lead to the prevention of suicides? And is it possible to make people who want to die have a will to live? I believe the answers to these two questions are yes.

According to Preventing Suicide, a Resource for Media Professionals, which WHO published in 2000, there are six things the media should and should not do when reporting suicides.

What to do:

1. Work closely with health authorities in presenting the facts.

2. Refer to suicide as a completed suicide, not a successful one.

3. Present only relevant data, on the inside pages.

4. Highlight alternatives to suicide.

5. Provide information on help lines and community resources.

6. Publicize risk indicators and warning signs.

What not to do:

1. Don't publish photographs or suicide notes.

2. Don't report specific details of the method used.

3. Don't give simplistic reasons.

4. Don't glorify or sensationalize suicide.

5. Don't use religious or cultural stereotypes.

6. Don't apportion blame.

From reading this, you can find almost all items in the "what not to do" list are common practice on TV, in newspapers and on the radio in Japan. For example, news anchors usually read out the suicide note emotionally. They use photos and video footage, directing many people's attention to a person who committed suicide, and also broadcast how the suicide was carried out, for example, what chemicals were mixed to produce the hydrogen sulfide. The media naturally try to get people interested in their reporting, but it is easy to imagine that people who want to commit suicide are encouraged to carry out suicide by such reports.

In contrast, almost nothing on the "what to do" list is done in Japan now. These listed items refer mainly to the approach to prevent suicide. When the mass media reports about a suicide, I believe it is important to follow the rules on this list. By doing this the media send a message to "Keep your life!" to the people who intend to kill themselves instead of sensationalizing suicide.

It is now time to review the way of reporting the news about suicide because suicide using hydrogen sulfide is getting people's attention, and there are more and more people who commit suicide using this method almost every day. The mass media must change their reporting policies and do something different to help. For example they should try to insert help line phone numbers every time they report about a suicide or highlight alternatives to suicide, etc. It is very possible that people who are thinking about suicide will call up the number they see or hear. By doing this, the media may be able to help decrease the number of suicides in Japan (more than thirty thousand last year). The mass media must realize that their job is not to just report events to gather people's attention, but to report things that really matter to citizens. When they make suicide reports, they should do so according to the WHO guide lines. We want to make the world more comfortable for such people to have the will to live again and to feel happiness when they choose to live.