Avoid detailed reporting on violence

Do newspapers, TV channels and new media know that their vivid coverage of the knife attack in a school could instigate another Min Yongjun to target children?

Min Yongjun, an epilepsy patient, is accused of attacking and injuring 23 children in a primary school and an old woman in a nearby home in Guangshan county, Henan province, on Dec 14. Min has confessed that he was obsessed with rumors that the world would end on Dec 21 and thought he could "prove his worth as a man" before doomsday by attacking children, because he had learned from a TV program two years ago that a person could "become a TV star overnight by killing children".

Min's confession has set the alarm bells ringing, raising questions on whether the media should continue to cover attacks on schoolchildren in gory details in an effort to sensationalize them.

On one hand, people have the right to know what endangered or could endanger public safety. On the other, there is always the fear that vivid coverage of such incidents could encourage some potential criminals to go on the rampage. It's high time the media faced up to this reality and covered such incidents responsibly.

From March to August in 2010, 22 people died and 85 were injured in seven attacks on school students in Fujian, Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong and Shaanxi provinces, and the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

There is no doubt that the authorities should increase their budget on education, especially on safety measures for schools, because most schools and kindergartens lack security guards and security equipment. The media, on its part, should review its role in the aftermath of the Guangshan school attack and focus on how they could prevent such tragedies.

To begin with, the media should decide what to and what not to report after an attack on a school or children. They should know that some things are better left unsaid.

According to the four villagers who brought Min down with the help of a school guard and Min's own confession, he clearly knew what he was doing. His obsession with doomsday rumors motivated him to do something to become a "worthy man" and the TV program he had seen two years ago influenced him to go on the rampage.

In fact, the dangerous effects of sensational reporting on such incidents were already evident in 2010. Six of the seven killings in six different places between March 23 and May 12, 2010, were carried out in similar style. And all the perpetrators had chosen their targets beforehand.