Our View: Reporting suicides in the news

Dr. Marc Whitacre, who is facing Havre High School teacher Lindsey Ratliff in the race for Ward 3 in the Havre City Council election, is working to bring attention to the high suicide rate in the state and this region, and the Havre Daily News applauds him for his efforts.

Montana is often in the running for the state with the highest suicide rate per capita in the nation, and is sometimes the top state for suicide rates.

It is a tragic, disturbing issue which needs examination, and the Havre Daily is ready to work alongside Whitacre, whether as a private citizen or as a public official, in attempts to raise awareness and find solutions for the problem.

If, however, Whitacre thinks that means the paper should be reporting on suicides as news stories, we beg to disagree.

The Havre Daily does report on suicide rates and does report when groups are trying to raise awareness of the problem and what services are available — such as when the Havre High School Key Club started a suicide prevention and awarenss program and when the annual Walk for Awareness of suicides is held.

It also prints stories reporting suicide rates and other local or state and national programs to try to prevent suicides and raise awareness of the problem.

Reporting on suicides has been an age-old issue with which newspapers try to tread lightly. Stories about prominent or famous people or public officials who commit suicides are likely to be written as news, or sensational events in a suicide — such as when a man who has had a nearly 24-hour standoff with police takes his own life in the end — that have caught the attention of the community. However, papers will try to avoid portraying the suicides in a way that could encourage copy-cat suicides.

That has been the dilemma of newspapers. What coverage will help with awareness, help with people finding help or treatment, and what will perpetuate stigma of conditions or lead people to follow others in ending their own lives.

The Havre Daily News believes that running stories of high school students or adults or anyone committing suicide simply to report and highlight that suicides are happening is the wrong way to try to cover the issue.

Perhaps Whitacre’s suggestion that publishing a monthly list of how many suicides occurred would be a benefit — or perhaps not.

At any rate, The Havre Daily News, for the moment, will not change how it covers suicides in this area.