When Securing Informed Consent is not possible The decision to capture testimony without obtaining fully informed consent is a judgment that only you can make based on the information you have available to you at the time. Keep in mind that if you decide to record an interview without informed consent, you are also taking on the obligation to protect the interviewee’s physical security, privacy, and dignity to the extent you can, so that no harm comes to them as a result of the interview. When you find yourself in a position where it’s impossible to secure a person’s informed consent, at the very minimum you should ask the interviewee the following questions: • What, if any, security concerns do you have? • Are there any actions you would like us to take while filming you or afterward to minimize your risks and/or the risks to your community? Then, before recording any testimony without completing the full informed-consent process, revisit the same questions you asked yourself when deciding whether to capture the interview on camera or document it in writing, looking for as many checks as possible in the “yes” column. CHECKLIST: TO COLLECT AN INTERVIEW WHEN INFORMED CONSENT IS NOT POSSIBLE? YES NO Is it safe to record a person’s identity (face, voice, and name)? If not, do you have the ability to adequately mitigate the safety risks? Do you have a way to safeguard the interviewee’s privacy? Will the provision of testimony empower (rather than re-victimize) the person? Is this likely to be the only opportunity for someone to speak to this person? Is there a high probability that the interviewee can provide relevant information? Do you have the means to securely preserve the footage? 163 VIDEO AS EVIDENCE: FILMING PRELIMINARY INTERVIEWS V 1.0 FILMING The internationally accepted practice is that informed consent must be secured when collecting testimony, either in writing, with an audio recorder, or on camera. However, obtaining informed consent takes time and there are field situations where it may be impractical — and even risky — to complete the process outlined above, because you simply don’t have the time to explain everything in the midst or immediate aftermath of a protest, an air strike, or a forced eviction, on election day, or while in a person is in the process of migrating.