Playing the blame game: the media coverage of a minor’s suicide
by Paul Dawnson Formaran
The mainstream media participated in the blame game that started in cyberspace when a student publication broke the story of a freshman University of the Philippines student’s suicide, mere hours after the incident, through a note on a social media site.
With the details on the suicide and the supposed reason for it already publicized through the Internet, the media’s effort to move the coverage away from the incident and to focus on the university policy that was said to be the cause of the student’s despondency fuelled more finger-pointing.
Social media onslaught
In the afternoon of March 15, 2013, the University of the Philippines (UP) Manila’s student publication, The Manila Collegian, posted a note on Facebook naming a 16-year old student who took her own life earlier that day, claiming that the university’s imposing “Forced Leaves of Absence” on students who had not paid their student loans as the “possible cause”.
“(The Manila Collegian) condemns the repressive policies of the UP Manila administration,” the note said.
The Manila Collegian’s only source was one of the victim’s professors, who, in a later editor’s note, was said to have been “given express authorization by the parents of the said student in such matters.”
A few hours later, the UP’s system-wide student publication The Philippine Collegian released a similar report which also identified the suicide. The report cited as source the same professor in The Manila Collegian’s report and quoted the university’s student regent as saying that the UP administration should be held accountable for the suicide.
Both publications removed the victim’s name from their reports later that day. The Philippine Collegian, on one hand, apologized for its “oversight” and discouraged other internet users from spreading the victim’s identity. But The Manila Collegian maintained that it “would not have published the name … if it (were) against the will of the parents.”
Social media users from the UP community sympathized with the suicide and criticized the UP administration for its “no late payment policy” that “advised” students to take a “Leave of Absence” (LOA) from the university or be tagged as AWOL.
In one instance, another professor from UP Manila posted a photo of the memo for the “no late payment policy” from the campus’s Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
A copy of the UP Manila memorandum a professor posted on social media
In its suicide prevention guidelines for media professionals reporting on suicide, the World Health Organization (WHO) says not to assign blame since any such case usually involves a complex mix of factors. Extreme care should be taken to prevent “copycat suicides”. But this was missing from initial reports, apparently due to the involvement of a public interest policy.
Following the lead
A day after the incident, reports apparently sourced from The Manila Collegian and The Philippine Collegian were published in major national newspapers. Both the reports in the Philippine Daily Inquirer and the Philippine Star followed the lead of The Manila Collegian, publishing the real name of the suicide and, in trying to highlight the flawed university policy, virtually characterizing the UP administration as merciless. “(The victim’s) mother, according to some reports, even knelt before UP Manila Chancellor Manuel Agudo (sic) and begged that her daughter be allowed to continue attending her classes,” said the report from the Star. UP Chancellor Agulto later denied that the incident happened.
WHO suicide prevention guidelines suggest refraining from publicizing the details of the methods used and the suicide notes left by the victims. But both the Inquirer and Star published the details of how the victim killed herself. The Star also published a portion of the suicide note.
The TV news reports were just as reckless. A report on ‘TV Patrol’ on March 18, 2013, three days after the incident, even made the parents reenact how they found the victim. The anchors of ‘Bandila’, in its March 15 broadcast, had no qualms about blaming the suicide solely on the “no late payment” policy.
To their credit, the reports on ‘Aksyon’ took care not to reveal the identity of the victim. They included the victim’s struggle with the university policy, but were careful not to attribute the suicide solely to it.
‘Singled out’
On March 18, 2013, the UP administration held a press conference to discuss the university policies related to the incident. Agulto lamented that the policies of UP Manila had been “singled out” as the only reason for the student’s suicide, reminding everyone of the complexity of suicide and that the victim had other problems with her family.
Discussions on how flawed UP’s policies are on tuition did air in the media. But comments judging the victim and her parents’ characters also started to circulate in social media sites.
A day after the UP press conference, TV news programs interviewed the victim’s father to address criticism about their parenting. Among other things, the father confirmed that he and his wife had been fighting due to financial problems, but reiterated that her daughter’s only respite from family problems was her schooling in UP, which was taken away from her when she was denied enrollment.
Parents’ Consent
The suicide’s mother confirmed that she did give permission to reveal her daughter’s name. In an interview with PJRR last March 21, 2013, she said that reporters from the media always asked for her permission to reveal details that could compromise their privacy.
“At first we thought of keeping her identity and other details of the incident private, but people will eventually find them out. And we understood reporters had to do their jobs. I always felt respect from them,” she said.
She added that even though no one from the media explained to her the repercussions of public attention, she was mature enough to know. She knew personal matters, such as their financial and marital problems, would become public, but she said she believed her daughter died for a larger cause.
Five years
Discussions on the matriculation policies and system of UP and the protests against them have been going on since at least 2007, when the 300% increase on the base tuition fee and the reworked ‘Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program’ were first implemented. But the issue was largely ignored by the media. It took a death for the media to notice.
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The Natasha Goulbourn Foundation, a non-profit organization in the Philippines dedicated to bringing depression to light, has an Information and Crisis Intervention Center (ICIC) HOPELINE. Contact them at (632) 804-HOPE (4673), 0917-558-HOPE (4673), 0917-852-HOPE (4673), or 2919 (toll-free number for GLOBE and TM subscribers).
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While Kris Aquino’s sex life gets frontpage attention! PH media is mad!
sige ang tinutukoy niyo ay kristel tejada at kasalanan niyo iyan media kasi binanggit niyo ang name niya especially ang abs-cbn na sila ang naunang nagbigay ng name kaya pinagpwestahan siya sa cyberspace at ng media pero may good news din naman kasi nasolusyonan ung ugat ni kristel tejada sa pagpapakamatay . Pero after ng abs-cbn na binanggit ung name niya ay nahanap siya sa mundo ng internet at napag-alaman na natin yung mukha niya.At sumunod na report ng abs-cbn ay binabanggit ung name niya pero naka blurd kaya ang ginawa ng iba pinanood na lang sa ibang istasyon na binabanggit ang name niya without blurd her face kasi ang dahilan siguro ay wala namang pinagkaiba dun sa coverage tulad nina alexander santiago,angelo reyes and etc. na nagpakamatay at alam ng tao ung mukha niya at katauhan niya kaya walang dahilan para i blurd pa ang face niya at kudos ako dun!.
Pero lessons for media ay lahat ng media mapa-tv,internet,print and radio ay magkaroon na ng iisang ethics na patas ukol sa mga nagpapakamatay na mayaman man o hindi, sikat man o di sikat ,at makapangyarihan man o hindi para di uuwi na naman sa pyesta ng mga media sa mga nagpapakamatay na sikat man o hindi
sige ang tinutukoy niyo ay kristel tejada at kasalanan niyo iyan media kasi binanggit niyo ang name niya especially ang abs-cbn na sila ang naunang nagbigay ng name kaya pinagpwestahan siya sa cyberspace at ng media pero may good news din naman kasi nasolusyonan ung ugat ni kristel tejada sa pagpapakamatay .Pero after ng abs-cbn na binanggit ung name niya ay nahanap siya sa mundo ng internet at napag-alaman na natin yung mukha niya.At sumunod na report ng abs-cbn ay binabanggit ung name niya pero naka blurd kaya ang ginawa ng iba pinanood na lang sa ibang istasyon na binabanggit ang name niya without blurd her face kasi ang dahilan siguro ay wala namang pinagkaiba dun sa coverage tulad nina alexander santiago,angelo reyes and etc. na nagpakamatay at alam ng tao ung mukha niya at katauhan niya kaya walang dahilan para i blurd pa ang face niya at kudos ako dun!.
Pero lessons for media ay lahat ng media mapa-tv,internet,print and radio ay magkaroon na ng iisang ethics na patas ukol sa mga nagpapakamatay na mayaman man o hindi, sikat man o di sikat ,at makapangyarihan man o hindi para di uuwi na naman sa pyesta ng mga media sa mga nagpapakamatay na sikat man o hindi
sige ang binabanngit ninyo ay si kristel tejada ang name niya especially ang abs-cbn na sila
httpsss://www.facebook.com/Foundation.AWIT/posts/440762252666716