Citation

Singh OP. Indian J. Psychiatry 2020; 62(4): 337-338.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Medknow Publications)

DOI

10.4103/psychiatry.IndianJPsychiatry_816_20

PMID

33165387 PMCID

Abstract

Celebrity suicide is one of the highly publicized events in our country. Indians got a glimpse of this following an unfortunate incident where a popular Hindi film actor died of suicide. As expected, the media went into a frenzy as newspapers, news channels, and social media were full of stories providing minute details of the suicidal act; some even going as far as highlighting the color of the cloth used in the suicide as well as showing the lifeless body of the actor. All kinds of personal details were dug up, and speculations and hypotheses became the order of the day in the next few days that followed. In the process, reputations of many people associated with the actor were besmirched and their private and personal details were freely and blatantly broadcast and discussed on electronic, print, and social media. We understand that media houses have their own need and duty to report and sensationalize news for increasing their visibility (aka TRP), but such reporting has huge impacts on the mental health of the vulnerable population.

The impact of this was soon realized when many incidents of copycat suicide were reported from all over the country within a few days of the incident. Psychiatrists suddenly started getting distress calls from their patients in despair with increased suicidal ideation. This has become a major area of concern for the psychiatry community.

The Indian Psychiatric Society has been consistently trying to engage with media to promote ethical reporting of suicide. Section 24 (1) of Mental Health Care Act, 2017, forbids publication of photograph of mentally ill person without his consent...

Language: en