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.