Works of Oral History and Upcoming Problems-3

Privacy

Compiled by: Mahia Hafizi
Translated by: Fazel Shirzad

2024-9-19

In order to learn more about the problems and challenges of producing oral history works or memoirs, the oral history website has conducted conversations with some experts and activists in this field, which will be presented to the audience in the form of short notes.

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Maintaining the interviewee's privacy is one of the duties of the oral history interviewer. Privacy in oral history is a respectful boundary and distance between each individual and subjective reservations. Hypothetically, the private life of each person can be divided into 3 parts:

1- Identity information (identity card information, marriage, education, etc.)

2- Personal information (salary, place of residence, etc.)

3- Privacy (individual and social private actions and behavior)

In the individual part of privacy, even the oral history interviewer is not allowed to ask about it, but that part that is related to the community is the same privacy that respects the nuances and how it is published.

In this context, it is very important to determine the scope of entry and ask the interviewer about the person's privacy. Of course, asking questions about personal issues that affect the interview process is allowed; But it is forbidden to ask about that part of individual issues that does not affect the discussion process. For example, one should not get information about whether a person's relationship with his wife was good or bad. Similarly, questions should not be asked about the narrator's family life, which is private.

The Council of Ministers approved the Executive Regulations of the Law on Publication and Free Access to Information in its meeting on 12/11/2014, which defines privacy as follows in its Article 1:

Privacy is an area of ​​a person's personal life that he expects others not to violate without his prior consent or notification or by law or judicial authorities. such as physical privacy, entering, watching, listening and accessing personal information through e-mail, mobile phone, letter, residential house, car and that part of privately rented places such as hotels and ships, as well as what according to the law of private professional activity of any is considered a natural and legal person; such as commercial documents, inventions and discoveries.[1]

Everyone's privacy is one of the red lines of society. In some countries, a person's financial information and medical records include his privacy. This is mainly the case for famous people or politicians. For example, there are reports that intelligence organizations such as the CIA have collected people's medical information in various ways.

In the Islamic culture and moral traditions of Iranians, it is necessary to protect privacy. But privacy in some cases does not have a precise definition. Suppose a manager has employed a person in his portfolio. If the relationship between this person and the manager is asked, this question will no longer include the privacy of that manager. All the actions that a person does in his sphere of responsibility do not include his privacy.

In oral history, we are required to respect people's privacy. Privacy must be respected both because of the professional ethics of oral history and because of culture and religious orders; But it is important to distinguish between privacy and privacy issues. Privacy is something that has nothing to do with the subject of the interview. For example, when a war commander is asked: "Is he scared in a certain operation?" it does not include privacy; but the question regarding night prayer at the front will include the privacy of the same person.