Ethics of attribution/consent for a deceased interview subject

[Anne Gadwa Nicodemus]

Dear CRN members,

For an international development organization, I am working on a case study of the Book Café (Harare, Zimbabwe) and its connections to fostering civic engagement and activism in a fairly repressive regime. One of our interviewees has, unfortunately, passed away post-interview and pre-publication, before we got his permission to attribute specific quotes to him. I’m wondering if anyone has any guidance on the ethics of the situation. He signed a consent form that said, "The researchers will not publish any information that makes it possible to identify an interviewee, without his/her express permission.” Given that, should I just list the quotes as “anonymous”? Or, should I see if a next of kin would approve them? Or, since he has passed on, shall I just disclose his identity? The individual was a very outspoken activist, and I think he would have probably been fine with attribution, but, you never know…

FYI, all I could find via google was the following:

http://www.quora.com/Journalistic-Ethics-and-Norms/Does-off-the-record-die-when-a-source-does

Thanks,

Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting

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[Carlos Manjarrez]

Hi Anne,

I would strongly council against attribution.  While your respondent may have passed, and is therefore in no harm of retribution, you have no way of knowing whether or not people around him/her could be targeted as a consequence of this disclosure.  

In most cases the respondent is in the best possible position to assess risks that might come from disclosure.  That is why agreements, like the one below, implicitly place the burden of the risk assessment on the respondent's shoulders.  Moving directly to disclosure essentially forgoes the risk assessment.  This is a very dangerous thing to do in an environment like the one you described below.

-Carlos Manjarrez

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[Aimee Fullman]

Hi Anne:

I know you must be extremely frustrated and disappointed regarding this situation. 

In general, I tend to be extremely conservative in regards to human subject protocols and confidentiality regardless of context because words are power and can be misused out of context once they are in writing. In this case, I strongly agree with Carlos. Even if you could get a "next of kin" sign off, there are often disagreements in families extending beyond legal "next of kin" relatives and it is true that relatives and/or colleagues that could be unknown to the "next of kin" could be potential targets especially in such an environment.  

If you wanted to follow-up (for the future), perhaps you could contact a journalist and or watchdog organization like Amnesty International about the protocols they use in such instances.

Ultimately, it will have to be your decision so good luck.

Aimee

Aimee Fullman

Meaningful Engagement, Intl.

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[Anne Gadwa Nicodemus]

Dear Aimee and Carlos,

Thanks so much for weighing in. I will follow the more conservative approach that you council.

Thanks,

Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting

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[Ximena Varela]

Anne,

I agree with Carlos and Aimee, but there may be one caveat: is there a way to find out if he left his papers/works/rights to someone else? I remember a similar case happening with an activist in Argentina a few years ago. He had passed away but the agreement was similar to yours: no attribution without specific consent. In his case, he had left his papers and his "voice" as it were to his partner and collaborator, and they were able to make a decision based on their input. I'll try to track down the case, but it seems that if he was such a vocal activist it would not be surprising if he'd made similar provisions. Good luck!

Ximena

Ximena Varela

Director, MA in Arts Management
Associate Professor of Arts Management

Chair, College of Arts and Sciences Educational Policy Committee
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue, NW
Washington, DC  20016-8012
Telephone: (240) 342-6503
Email: var...@american.edu
http://artsmanagement.american.edu

[Research Center for Arts and Culture]

Hi Anne,

I think you might ask a colleague to check with a University IRB since they have probably been faced with similar cases (they are pretty strict with "human subjects").

Best, Joan

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 8:14 PM, Anne Gadwa Nicodemus <ga...@metrisarts.com> wrote:

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[Anne Gadwa Nicodemus]

Thanks Ximena and Joan for weighing in. Ximena, his death was unexpected, so I doubt he had made such arrangements. Joan, I think I’ll just stick with the conservative approach and make sure we are being responsible and ethical with any potential risk to the interviewee’s friends and associates.

Best,

Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting

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On Sep 18, 2014, at 1:38 PM, Research Center for Arts and Culture <rc...@creativeaging.org> wrote:

Hi Anne,

I think you might ask a colleague to check with a University IRB since they have probably been faced with similar cases (they are pretty strict with "human subjects").

Best, Joan

On Wed, Sep 17, 2014 at 8:14 PM, Anne Gadwa Nicodemus <ga...@metrisarts.com> wrote:

Dear CRN members,

For an international development organization, I am working on a case study of the Book Café (Harare, Zimbabwe) and its connections to fostering civic engagement and activism in a fairly repressive regime. One of our interviewees has, unfortunately, passed away post-interview and pre-publication, before we got his permission to attribute specific quotes to him. I’m wondering if anyone has any guidance on the ethics of the situation. He signed a consent form that said, "The researchers will not publish any information that makes it possible to identify an interviewee, without his/her express permission.” Given that, should I just list the quotes as “anonymous”? Or, should I see if a next of kin would approve them? Or, since he has passed on, shall I just disclose his identity? The individual was a very outspoken activist, and I think he would have probably been fine with attribution, but, you never know…

FYI, all I could find via google was the following:

http://www.quora.com/Journalistic-Ethics-and-Norms/Does-off-the-record-die-when-a-source-does

Thanks,

Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting

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Research Center for Arts & Culture
National Center for Creative Aging
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rc...@creativeaging.org

[Aimee Fullman]

Anne:

You haven't said if he died by natural or unnatural causes. If there is any doubt be extremely careful bc repercussions can be high in places like Zimbabwe.

Sorry to be the nervous nelly. Good luck.

Aimee Fullman
Meaningful Engagement Intl
www.aimeefullman.com

[Anne Gadwa Nicodemus]

No worries, there, Aimee. It was natural causes.

-Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting

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On Sep 19, 2014, at 12:22 PM, Aimee Fullman <aimee....@gmail.com> wrote:

Anne:

You haven't said if he died by natural or unnatural causes. If there is any doubt be extremely careful bc repercussions can be high in places like Zimbabwe.

Sorry to be the nervous nelly. Good luck.

Aimee Fullman
Meaningful Engagement Intl
www.aimeefullman.com

On Sep 19, 2014 3:41 PM, "Anne Gadwa Nicodemus" <ga...@metrisarts.com> wrote:

Thanks Ximena and Joan for weighing in. Ximena, his death was unexpected, so I doubt he had made such arrangements. Joan, I think I’ll just stick with the conservative approach and make sure we are being responsible and ethical with any potential risk to the interviewee’s friends and associates.

Best,

Anne

Anne Gadwa Nicodemus

Principal, Metris Arts Consulting