Hong Kong equality watchdog warns against derogatory terms that stigmatise mentally ill
- Equal Opportunities Commission releases guidelines highlighting importance of unbiased reporting in media’s coverage of mental health issues
Derogatory terms and sensationalised, clickbait headlines should be avoided in media’s reporting on mental health issues, Hong Kong’s equality watchdog has said in its new guidelines to prevent stigmatisation and better protect mentally ill people.
The Equal Opportunities Commission on Friday released “Media Guidelines for Reporting on Mental Health Issues”, which offered tips for media practitioners and highlighted the importance of unbiased reporting and the proper use of language and images to prevent the labelling of people with mental illness.
The guidelines urged media to avoid conjectures, assumptions or broad generalisations about the conditions of mentally ill people, as well as about the cause of incidents reported, to prevent misconceived associations between mental health issues and threat or violence.
Media were also told to refrain from delving into the private lives of people involved in the incidents of mental health issues, gratuitously reporting the minute details of incidents or depicting them as tragedies, to minimise further harm.
“We hope to leverage the power of the media to have a positive impact on society through reporting in a fair and balanced way and based on facts and objectivity, to instil correct information into the public so they will not [unfairly] label people with mental illness,” said Ferrick Chu Chung-man, the commission’s executive director of operations.
He noted that one out of every seven people in Hong Kong had mental health needs, according to a 2017 review report by health authorities.
A study by the commission last year showed that 78.5 per cent of people with mental illness considered that discrimination against sufferers was prevalent in the city.
Under the city’s Disability Discrimination Ordinance, the definition of disabilities includes mental illness. Activity in public inciting hatred towards, serious contempt for or severe ridicule of people on the ground of their disabilities is unlawful.
As the mental health of residents had become a public concern, Chu said the commission had invited members of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health and representatives from the Hong Kong Press Council to develop the guidelines, hoping to engage media practitioners in raising public awareness of the issue.
The guidelines highlighted the use of proper language and images, urging media to avoid derogatory and humiliating terms such as “crazy person” and “psycho”. Sensationalised and exaggerated headlines should be abandoned, as well as images symbolising violence or associations with distress, such as knives or blood.
Media were also asked to include in their reporting information about support services and the contact details of relevant organisations, including helplines, as well as to give voice to people with mental illness by sharing their stories of personal growth and contribution to society.
Chu added that apart from media practitioners, the general public should also take reference from the guidelines when talking about mental health issues on social media platforms.
Professor Raymond Li, head of the department of journalism at Baptist University who helped with drafting the guidelines, said different organisations had already released several guidelines on reporting on suicide incidents, including the World Health Organization.
But he noted the issue of mental illness had become more complex and attracted more media coverage on issues such as self-harm and eating disorders.
“Media could consider integrating the guidelines into their editorial standards and practices,” he said.
