TW- This article has mentions of suicide. If you think you could get triggered, please stop reading here.

Original article- https://www.j-cast.com/2013/11/25189986.html?p=all

Junior High School 3rd Grade Girl Commiting Suicide by Jumping, She Was "Streaming Live"?

Why Don't the Larger News Companies Report on it?

2013/11/25 19:01

In a mansion in Shiga prefecture, Oumi Hachiman, before dawn of 2013 November 24th, a female 3rd grade junior high school student (14) was found collapsed on the ground, and passed away in the hospital. The police are investigating the suicide. On the internet, this case is gathering attention, with speculations on whether this girl is the same as the girl who used the web service "FC2" to live stream herself "jumping off".

Contrary to the rise of attention of the case, all of the large newspaper companies only mention the bare minimum of what happened. We cannot be certain whether or not these two people are the same yet, but even if this were to be true, there's a reason why the mainstream media can't report on the case.

"Oh damn... this is actually real"

According to the reports of several sources, the female student was found at around 3:55 AM, in front of the mansion's entrance facing down, by a local newspaper deliverer. She had hit her head very strongly, and she passed away 3 hours later in the hospital. From the fact that there was a trash can in the stairwell between the 13th and 14th floor, it is thought that she climbed over the 1.4 meter wall, and police are investigating the suicide further. No suicide note has been found, and currently, there is no information regarding bullying of the student.

Note- 1.4m= 4 feet and 7 inches

With this news, there have been speculations on the internet of this case being the same one as the girl who "streamed herself jumping" on the same morning of the 24th. The girl claimed to be a "JC3(a 3rd year junior high school girl)". Approximately a week before, there were posts suggesting a "suicide stream" from a stairwell from a user with the same name as the streamer"s account.

Note- this is referring to the posts on 2chan (Roro)

On the internet, there are those who speculate that "she just dropped her iPhone while streaming", but most connect these two cases together, and comment "Oh damn...this is actually real", "The walls of the mansion flashing by as the phone falls is freaky", "This made me think about how scary the internet is, and how scary people can be". There have been sites summarizing the original thread, causing a commotion on the internet.

"Reporting Methods on Suicide" Isn't Recommended, WHO Says

When interviewing the Oumi Hachiman police, the female student's smartphone was found at the scene. They already know about the video which is going viral, and are investigating the relation between the two. However, unlike the commotion this case is causing on the internet, aside from a few sports papers, none of the mainstream newspapers are reporting on this video at all. In all the articles that can be seen, they only report on the bare minimum of what happened.

We contacted a few news paper companies, however we were told, "We will not answer any inquiries regarding the contents of interviews, and how we write our articles" (The Mainichi Newspapers), "We cannot answer questions regarding the details of individual articles and interviews" (The Asahi Shinbun Company) and could not find any answers.

In fact, when reporting suicides, there has been concern of "chain suicides" due to excessive reporting of suicide, and large news stations choose not to report these types of cases.

Note- the suicide of an idol, Yukiko Okada was heavily reported on the news in 1986, with graphic photographs of her body widely reported on the media. This caused a lot of fans to be shocked and some people committed suicide soon after her. The problem was so bad it was known as "Yukiko Syndrome". It is said that 30-40 people followed after Yukiko, but some even say the number goes up to 300(but personally I feel like 300 is unrealistic). Ever since this incident, the media has been a lot more cautious when reporting on suicide.

For example, The Asahi Shinbun Company has stated in their handbook, "Reporting and Interviewing Cases 2012", that "We will not report specific methods of suicide" "We will not just assume why the case happened, and we will provide background when reporting", and lists a series of points to be cautious of. The reports of this case are likely due to the companies following similar guidelines of their own.

Regarding the reporting of suicide, the WHO have created their own handbooks on how cases should be reported, and state that "suicides should not be treated as sensational" "articles reporting suicide should not be put in places which stand out, reported in a graphical manner, and should not be reported repeatedly" "in both completed suicides and attempted suicides, the method should not be stated in detail".