The media risks encouraging people to commit suicide, academics and the families of young people who have died in Bridgend warned yesterday.

The criticisms were made after the apparent suicide of Jenna Parry, 16, the latest in the 13-month spate of deaths.

Specialists from Oxford University's department of psychiatry said there was "compelling evidence of increases in suicidal behaviour after the appearance of news reports, fictional drama presentations on television and suicide manuals". "There is clear evidence that reports in the media that give descriptions of the method of suicide and romanticise the deceased by giving descriptions of the attention they receive in the form of condolences and online obituaries give rise to other suicides," said Sue Simkin, coordinator of the centre for suicide research at Oxford.

"Studies have also found increases in suicides after a picture is used of the victim or the location and where the story is sensationalised, is prominent in the paper and is repeated."

The centre has reviewed 90 international studies which assessed the impact of media portrayal on suicide. Thirty of those studies examined the possible impact of newspaper reports. In 21 cases there was evidence of an increase in suicides after the reports. Ten studies revealed a direct causal link between the reported suicide and those happening afterwards.

Stories that name or depict the method of suicide, especially when the method is lethal and readily available, are of particular concern, said the study's authors, Kathryn Williams and Keith Hawton.

"Imitation is more likely among audience members who can identify with the suicide victim in some way; for example by age, gender or nationality," a synopsis of their research said.

People who are suicidal are attracted by the idea of the "30 minutes of fame" which they see other victims receiving in news pages and on the internet, particularly on message boards on social networking websites, the Samaritans said.

Parents of some of the victims of 17 suicides in Bridgend, south Wales, also said the media's methods of reporting had encouraged their children to kill themselves. Christopher Claypole, whose 19-year-old stepson David Dilling killed himself in February 2007, said the media had been at fault in placing victims "on a pedestal". "It's wrong," he told Radio 5 Live. "It's encouraging other youngsters to do the same."

On Tuesday, Sharon Pritchard, the mother of Nathaniel Pritchard, 15, who died by apparent suicide last week, told a press conference: "Media coverage put the idea into Nathaniel's head."

Sir Christopher Meyer, the chairman of the Press Complaints Commission, last night urged the public to report articles about the Bridgend suicides "which in their view are either insensitive or which provide such excessive detail".

According to the Samaritans, an episode of Casualty on BBC1 several years ago featured an overdose using easily available drugs. It precipitated a 17% rise in cases of self-poisoning in the following week. In 1988, German researchers studied the impact of a TV drama series which showed the suicide of a 19-year-old man. In the 70 days after the broadcast they observed 62 suicides of men aged 15 to 29, an increase of 86% on previous years.

The National Public Health Service for Wales yesterday released data which confirmed that the number of suicides in Bridgend among young men aged 15 to 24 in 2007 was more than three times the annual average of two over the previous decade. With such small numbers, however, it warned that variations may produce a "disproportionate effect".

Bridgend already had the highest suicide rate for men of that age of any area in Wales. Between 1996 and 2006 the suicide rate was more than double the average for the principality with 44 deaths per 100,000 of population.

Office for National Statistics figures show an average of 15 men and women have killed themselves in Bridgend every year since 2001. Suicide rates for men and women were higher in Wales between 2004 and 2006 than Northern Ireland, England and Scotland.

The annual number of suicides by young people aged 15 to 24 in England has fallen steadily since 2001, from 463 to 361.

Researchers' view

Most people who die by suicide have been suffering psychiatric illness and this is consistently under-reported.

Voluntary restraints on reporting suicides by specific methods have resulted in abrupt and statistically significant reductions in deaths by those methods.

Media portrayals that encourage imitative behaviour often name or depict a method of suicide. Of particular concern is coverage of celebrities who take their own lives. Depicting celebrities or fictional characters dealing with emotional distress in constructive ways can promote life and hope. Such presentations reflect the reality that most people who consider suicide never act upon their feelings, but find ways to solve their problems.

Reports which portray suicide as a natural or understandable response to problems such as failure to achieve important goals, relationship difficulties or financial crises, promote imitation, as does treating suicide as a tragic or heroic act by someone who apparently had everything to live for. Media should resist showing or implying a person may be "rewarded" for suicidal behaviour, for example by achieving a reconciliation, or getting revenge or sympathy.

Source: the centre for suicide research, Oxford University.

Contact: the Samaritans on 08457909090 or samaritans.org