Newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal: Quality assessment against World Health Organization media guidelines

Abstract

Background: Sensible media reporting of suicide is a population-based suicide prevention strategy. However, the quality of media reporting of suicide has not been assessed in Nepal.

Objectives: We aimed to assess the newspaper reporting status of suicide in Nepal with reference to World Health Organization (WHO) media guidelines for suicide reporting.

Method: We retrospectively searched eight major newspapers in Nepal between January 2020 and May 2021 and assessed 167 news reports against WHO suicide reporting guidelines.

Results: Potentially harmful characteristics were found to be reported in both the title and main text of the reports. About half of them mentioned sex (48.5%) and 38.3% mentioned the location of suicide in the title. Of the 167 reports, 74.3%, 95.2%, 34.7%, 92.2%, 98.8%, and 52.7% mentioned the name, sex, occupation, method of suicide, the location of suicide, and life events, respectively, in their main content. On the other hand, only 6% and 2.4% of reports mentioned linkage of suicides with mental illness and substance abuse, respectively. While lesser than 1% of reports narrated educative information regarding suicide prevention, none mentioned contact information for help-seeking for the vulnerable.

Conclusion: Newspaper reporting of suicide in Nepal poorly adheres to WHO guidelines, substantiated by the high presence of potentially harmful characteristics and negligible presence of potentially helpful characteristics.

Keywords: Nepal; World Health Organization; analysis; guideline adherence; newspaper article; prevention and control; suicide.