Compliance with the who guidelines on suicide reporting. An analysis of the spanish digital press (2010-2017)

Abstract

This research analyses compliance with World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on the reporting of suicides as published in the Spanish digital press over the period between 2010 and 2017. The My news online newspaper library has been used for this. A content analysis has been carried out on a sample created from all the news reports on suicides (n = 183) published in the six main Spanish digital media outlets (elpais.com, elmundo.es, abc.es, lavanguardia. com, elconfidencial.com and20minutos.es). Among other issues, the use of photographs and the young and / or popular character of the victims have also been studied. The results indicate that few news items about suicides are published and that only 32.84% of those published refer to events that occurred in Spain. A lack of compliance with the ethical recommendations of the WHO is also evident.