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Jeroen W. Pluimers on .NET, C#, Delphi, databases, and personal interests

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World Health Organisation – “Quick reference guide: responsible reporting on suicide”

Posted by jpluimers on 2025/09/05

With World Suicide Prevention Day coming up in less than a week, this is a reminder on how to report on this. Not just important to the media at large, but everyone on social media too.

When you are in The Netherlands:

  • Is your life in immediate danger? Call 112 immediately.
  • If your life is not in immediate danger but you could still use help, call 113 (standard rate) or 0800-0113 (free of charge) or start an online chat.

When you are outside The Netherlands, find help via these links:

Please read the 1 page large font and visually clear [Wayback/Archive] responsible-reporting-on-suicide.pdf.

The [Wayback/Archive] World Suicide Prevention Day 2024 started with the 2024-2026 triennial theme “Changing the Narrative on Suicide”, so please please please read the above PDF.

If you cannot view PDF on your computer, you can read it through the picture below, or an on-line PDF viewer in your web-browser through these links:

One-page picture of the PDF (right side via Walrathis’ tweet below):

Quick reference guide: responsible reporting on suicide
PDF image Tweet image
[Wayback/Archive] GXDd10RXkAAqy6p.jpg (706×999) [Wayback/Archive] GRLDgdeWQAAjAS9.jpg (975×1200)

Quick reference guide: responsible reporting on suicide

Widely disseminated stories of death by suicide are often followed by more suicides in the population, while stories of overcoming a suicidal crisis can lead to fewer suicides. Media professionals are encouraged to focus on presenting stories of people who overcome difficulties following a suicidal crisis while also following the Dos and Don’ts in this resource when reporting on suicide.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Aravind Kumar

Dos

  • Do recognize that media professionals may themselves be affected when covering stories about suicide.
  • Do apply caution when interviewing bereaved family members or friends or persons with lived experience of suicide.
  • Do report stories of how to cope with life stressors and/or suicidal thoughts and the importance of help-seeking.
  • Do provide accurate information about where and how to seek help for suicidal thoughts and suicidal crises.
  • Do educate the public with the facts about suicide and suicide prevention based on accurate information.
  • Do apply particular caution when reporting celebrity suicides.

Don’ts

  • Don’t describe the method used.
  • Don’t name or provide details about the site/location.
  • Don’t oversimplify the reason for a suicide or reduce it to a single factor.
  • Don’t report the details of suicide notes.
  • Don’t use sensational language in headlines.
  • Don’t use photographs, video footage, audio recordings, or digital or social media links.
  • Don’t use language/content which sensationalizes, romanticizes or normalizes suicide, or that presents it as a viable solution to problems.
  • Don’t position suicide-related content as the top story and don’t unduly repeat such stories.

WHO/UCN/MSD/MHE/2023.5

© WHO, 2023. Some rights reserved. This work is available under the CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO licence.

Responsible reporting on suicide: quick reference guide

Dos

  • Do provide accurate information about where to seek help
  • Do educate the public about the facts of suicide and suicide prevention, without spreading myths
  • Do report stories of how to cope with life stressors or suicidal thoughts, and how to get help
  • Do apply particular caution when reporting celebrity suicides
  • Do apply caution when interviewing bereaved family or friends
  • Do recognize that media professionals themselves may be affected by stories about suicide

Don’ts

  • Don’t place stories about suicide prominently and don’t unduly repeat such stories
  • Don’t use language which sensationalizes or normalizes suicide, or presents it as a constructive solution to problems
  • Don’t explicitly describe the method used Don’t provide details about the site/location
  • Don’t use sensational headlines
  • Don’t use photographs, video footage or social media links

If you can read Dutch, then you can get a free PDF book via [Wayback/Archive] Suïcide voorkomen via de media – Trimbos-instituut:

That too you can read through an on-line PDF viewer: [Wayback/Archive] Suïcide voorkomen via de media: een handreiking voor mediaprofessionals

Related links

Know how to react, if someone tells you about suicide

Get Trained: Know how to react, if someone tells you about suicide (click for larger version: [Wayback/Archive] FRqbspEXIAAOlMF.png (1200×606))

Get trained so you know how to respond when some one tells you about suicide:

[Wayback/Archive] Thread by @jpluimers on Thread Reader App – … (Thanks @jilles_com for your 2022 @nluug lecture image)

  1. Tweet JSON: [Wayback/Archive] Know how to react, if someone tells you about suicide…
  2. Tweet JSON: [Wayback/Archive] Higher resolution image from

WHO responsible reporting on suicide image tweets:

Related blog post (thanks again Jilles!): Trigger warning: recovering data of someone close to you which suddenly died

Related on-line links:

Related Wikipedia links:

Query: [Wayback/Archive] responsible reporting on suicide: quick reference guide – Google Search

--jeroen

This entry was posted on 2025/09/05 at 18:00 and is filed under About, Awareness, LifeHacker, Media, Personal, Power User, SocialMedia. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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