The Valley Indy was criticized several times on our Facebook page Friday for running a story, two photos and a video about a woman who was threatening to jump off the Maple Street Bridge in Ansonia.
The woman was rescued and the story was worth reporting.
In general, The Valley Indy does not report on suicides in most cases. We may report on suicides if the death involves a public person or happens in a public place.
Consideration was given before publishing information Friday.
Specifically, we thought of the Code of Ethics from the Society of Professional Journalists, which reminds us to “minimize harm.”
To that end …
We waited until the incident was resolved before posting information.
We remained some 40 feet way, resulting in photographs that did not easily identify the woman. Once it was over, we approached police and EMS to ask what happened. We did not take photos of the woman from up close.
We did not provide the woman’s name, and we withheld information we felt could have identified her. We spoke to two of her friends at the scene. We did not use the information.
We felt the incident warranted reporting because it was a dramatic, highly unusual event at a bridge that could be seen by all.
In addition to being a public place, members of the public spotted the woman and called for help.
The incident shut the bridge for a short time, rerouting traffic — another impact to the public.
At least a dozen members of the public watched the incident as it happened.
Police, whom we interviewed immediately after the incident, told us members of the public helped to drag the woman to safety.
We posted the video after she was safe because the incident was harrowing — and the fact she was saved was a relief.
We did not take video of the woman while she was in danger.
Those were the steps we took to respect the woman’s privacy in an unusual public event, and our justification as to why the story was worth publishing.
Some have suggested we should have altered the photo, used a generic headline, or simply kept the information to ourselves.
That is not journalism.
Given the public nature of the dramatic, highly unusual incident, people were wondering what happened.
Stories, videos, and photos should reflect what happened.
We try our best to report the news in a respectful manner, without sensationalism. At the same time, we want to avoid sanitizing, glorifying or otherwise altering the facts to fit a particular view.
After the story was published, we deleted several comments from readers which were unwarranted or downright cruel — and we discussed the coverage, at length, with people who disagreed with us. We also banned three people from commenting on stories in the future, and turned off comments on the initial story.
Much later in the day we added a link to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.
Finally, the federal HIPPA law does not apply to reporters, a common misconception.
