 
NEW ZEALAND DEBATE
Silence and Youth Suicide
There�s been a lot of attention in the last couple of
weeks and particularly the past few days on the question of youth
suicide. This week that has focused strongly on the way that it is
reported in the New Zealand media. Earlier in the week, a second young
person from Putaruru College in the North Island died suddenly. That
followed the death seven weeks earlier of a 12-year-old student who had
reportedly been the victim of bullying via text and e-mail. The
Education Ministry and a teachers� union asked media organisations not
to publicise the second sudden death and Education Minister Steve
Maharey later backed that up, by requesting no further coverage. The
ministry said research showed that media coverage of suicides
�glorified� the issue, suggesting that reporting on suicide might
somehow make it an attractive option for other young people.
Yesterday Gregory Fortuin, the chairman of the Youth
Suicide Awareness Trust, called for an end to �the tyranny of silence�
around suicide. In a television interview, he said it was nonsense to
suggest that if such cases were not featured in the media, young people
would somehow not know about them, citing the multiplicity of modern
communication devices that spread news a lot faster than the traditional
news media these days. The issue is one that the media has been
examining for some time, given that New Zealand law on the reporting of
suicides is particularly stringent.
A submission by the Commonwealth Press Union to the
justice and electoral select committee contended that �given our
distressingly high suicide rates�, the law in this country was �clearly
not in the public interest�. �We strongly believe responsible reporting
of the scourge of suicide could provide a better understanding, lead to
more discussion of alternatives and the help people can get and perhaps
lead to a reduction in our high rates,� part of the submission read.
Clearly, suicide is a scourge � there�s simply no other way to frame it
� and New Zealand�s high rates are a cause for concern. The media is not
necessarily arguing for more freedom to report the circumstances of
individual cases, but for the ability to appropriately address what is
an ongoing and deeply distressing problem, with a view to helping find
some solutions. That, after all, is the bottom line. Our suicide rates,
particularly among youth, appear to be some of the highest in the
developed world and it�s an issue that has to be addressed.
Grant Shimmin
30 March 2006
http://www.ashburtonguardian.co.nz/index.asp?articleid=6983
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