SUICIDE REPORTING IN SWISS PRINT MEDIA - RESPONSIBLE OR IRRESPONSIBLE

All articles in Swiss newspapers with suicide or attempted suicide as the main topic were collected over a time span of 8 months, The aim wa s the investigation of a potential imitation effect and the extent of preventive messages given, A rating scheme for an assumed imitation ef fect based on different items for heading, text and picture was develo ped. The results show that approximately two-fifths of all 151 article s were inappropriate in some aspects and were considered as bearing a high potential for imitation effect, The rating was significantly more unfavourable for the main Swiss tabloid paper than the other newspape rs, A reason for suicide was specified in 41.7% of all articles, half of them in a very simple and monocausal way, Relevant preventive infor mation was only given in 10% of cases, We conclude that media guidelin es for suicide reporting are needed, A preventive strategy to influenc e the policy of suicide reporting in newspapers must primarily concent rate on a few papers with a high circulation (popular press).