ABSTRACT
Hong Kong media were notorious for frequently reporting suicide news. In Austria and Australia, only 1-4 percent of suicide cases would be reported by the media (Niederkrotenthaler et al., 2009; Etzersdorfer & Sonneck, 1998; Pirkis, Burgess, Blood, & Francis, 2007). By contrast, the coverage rate in Hong Kong was as high as 47 percent (Au, Yip, Chan, & Law, 2004). In addition, suicide news in Hong Kong (HK) was found to be generally sensational, frequently publishing bloody photos, private information of the deceased and family, and details of suicide methods and locations (Fu, Chan, & Yip, 2011). However, over the years, positive changes are afoot in Hong Kong after our persistent engagement with the media professionals. is chapter will report our experiences and discuss how the local experiences are relevant with international policies and practices in promoting responsible media representation of suicide. We will focus on two versions of recommendations on suicide reporting in HK, published in 2004 and 2015, respectively, to report the contexts and procedures of how we developed and implemented these recommendations, followed by a discussion section.
