Media can choose to make a positive difference
by Susie Hill
Veteran Maori broadcaster Kingi Biddle says it is important to inform the public about people who die by their own hand, but above all the sensitivities of those who loved them are paramount.
Mr Biddle works in radio and television and was recently a panel member at the 2011 SPINZ conference, “How Do We Talk About Suicide”. He says the media is in the position to make a positive or negative difference to the “entire world out there listening, watching and reading”.
“We should ask ourselves what do we want to do? Do we want to help in suicide prevention? Or do we want to play with people’s lives by sensationalising the news for our own motives, whatever they might be?”
Safe suicide reporting to Mr Biddle means not revealing certain details, like the method used by the deceased person, or using graphic pictures or even suggestive pictures, like a tree in a park. He says even the word “suicide” brings with it a certain feeling that could be hurtful or harmful.
“Being Maori, I always think about the wairua; how will this story affect the spirit of our people?”
If these sensitivities aren’t acknowledged, he knows it will cause so much pain to so many people, and possibly play a part in giving other people who are hurting the idea to do the same thing.
Common television scenes where bodies are being stretchered into ambulances, he says, are insensitive and unnecessary.
“Imagine how you would feel if that was the person you had given your heart to.” He recalls a time when his cousin was murdered in Australia and he was subjected to footage of blood being hosed away.
“Where’s the sensitivity, were they selling soap or what?” Mr Biddle asks.
The pain comes in waves, often made worse by the media.
He says it is bad enough for whanau when someone is sick and we know they will soon pass away, but to lose someone unexpectedly to suicide hits you in a completely different way – and the pain comes in waves, often made worse by the media.
“First we find out about the death, then we read about it in the newspaper and hear it on the radio, then we see it on television. So the pain keeps coming.
“I’m not saying don’t report the death, it is news, I’m simply saying think about how we tell the story so we can protect others.”
Mr Biddle recalls the recent suicides of a young girl in Tokoroa and of two 30-year-old men in Kawerau, and pauses for thought – presumably about the recent news reports of trouble in those regions.
Not an expert in suicide prevention himself, he says he isn’t sure if Maori suicide reporting should be any different from mainstream reporting. But he has done some research into what is available for media wanting to look after family while at the same time reporting the news.
“And by family I mean everyone: people in our family, our family of community and the family of the country we live in.”
He says there are Acts that support what he is saying, and the Broadcasting Standards Authority alerted him to the Ministry of Health’s Suicide in the Media Handbook, for which he said he was very grateful.
“The media has the opportunity to inform and protect people, both those who are grieving and the vulnerable.”
