Hanging the messenger

In an angry news conference in Bridgend, the chief of police produces a newspaper which has been speculating as to whether the recent series of 17 suicides of young people, all by hanging, were in any way related. "If there is proof, I'd like to see it" he says with real venom in his voice. The grieving mother of one of the latest fatalities is equally, at least apparently, certain where the fault lies: the press. But the fact that her words seem to be so on message with the official line gives us pause that the message may in fact have been written for her.
The fact is that there was little or no press coverage of this case until the past few weeks, before which time a dozen or so young people had hanged themselves. To put this into perepective, in the previous year, there were 3 suicides in the same age bracket and 3 in the year before that. I'm not sure if these were all by hanging but even if they were that is an increase of 300%, a staggering amount.
The fact that all these youngster have chosen the same method of dispatching themselves, and that a far from painless one, adds further suspicion to this odd mystery. It is surely the duty of the press to investigate any possible links. Rather than scape-goating the media (retrospectively in the cases of the first dozen victims), perhaps the police would be better served doing its own job.