Netflix have been asked to substantiate a claim made in a Parliamentary committee hearing that the real Baby Reindeer Martha is a stalker.
Giving evidence before the Culture Media and Sport Committee last week, Netflix executive Benjamin King told John Nicolson MP the show was "obviously a true story of the horrific abuse that the writer and protagonist Richard Gadd suffered at the hands of a convicted stalker".
The select committee chair, Nicolson believes the evidence Netflix gave may have been inaccurate. The SNP MP said: “It's clear that the evidence given by Netflix to the select committee is disputed".
He added: “The charge made of a conviction is very important. Journalists can find no evidence to back up the Netflix claim". Knowingly misleading a committee is a contempt of Parliament.
Fiona Harvey, 58, was outed as the woman who inspired Scots comedian Richard Gadd’s TV series which Netflix billed as “a true story”. Last night, she told The Record: “For a Netflix executive to call me a convicted stalker is the highest form of defamation.
“I am astonished that someone like that made a comment like that at a select committee hearing. Fair enough, they want to make a lot of money out of this but this is not the way to do it. This is nonsense. I mean, does anyone sane actually believe Netflix?”
She added: “The political will is there to shut down this nonsense and I commend John Nicolson in spearheading this. I would invite John Nicolson to call me about this.”
Soon after the Netflix show was aired, internet sleuths had no difficulty finding Harvey. Some of her social media posts were identical or strikingly similar to those used in the show.
She then spoke exclusively to the Daily Record to claim that she was a victim as a result of the broadcast and that she had not been to prison as portrayed in the show.
Initially, the Record decided as a “duty of care” not to identify her. But she later expressed her desire to be identified.
Neither Netflix or the show’s creator, Scots comedian Richard Gadd, have confirmed she is the real Martha, who is jailed for stalking Gadd and also has a historical prison record. Harvey says she has never been convicted of stalking.
Mr Nicolson said: "I will be writing to Netflix to ask them to substantiate the claim they made."
Baby Reindeer is the TV phenomenon of the year. It has been watched by 65 million people worldwide. In its opening episode, the show claims: "This is a true story".
Gadd has since talked about the programme telling his "emotional truth". So far, no evidence has been produced that she has a conviction.
It has been reported that a writ was filed against her more than 20 years ago in a Scottish court by a lawyer who accused her of harassment. Harvey has claimed that did not proceed. She denied harassment. Apart from the evidence to the Committee, Netflix has not made any comment since the controversy erupted.
Piers Morgan said the framing of Martha in Baby Reindeer as a stalker who goes to prison is a "serious failure by Netflix" as "nobody's found any evidence whatsoever that she has any criminal record, let alone for anything to do with Richard Gadd."
Chris Banatvala, former head of standards at Ofcom told the BBC there is "a duty of care" whenever you make a programme dealing with potentially vulnerable people, "whether that's Richard Gadd or Fiona Harvey". He added: "Has she been portrayed in a way that is unfair to her. Did she or did she not go to prison?"
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The streaming channel is not governed by Ofcom regulatory codes. Banatvala added: "In traditional broadcasting, there's a very good set of rules around fairness, what you can and can't do".
Doctor Who writer, Russell T Davies, said the BBC's editorial compliance processes would have been "much stricter". He said “Compliance and editorial policy drives us mad here but I sleep at night".
In his evidence to MPs, King said in making the show, Netflix had taken "every reasonable precaution in disguising the real-life identities of the people involved in that story".
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Harvey disputed that when she spoke to the Record and subsequently Piers Morgan in a YouTube show that has been watched more than 11 million times. She was offered £250 by the programme and now wants £1 million.
Morgan told the Lorraine show, "she's not going to get a million pounds from me, no… there's no question about that".
He added the show had also paid "for her to have a very nice expensive haircut and we got a very nice car to bring her to and from her home. So I think we treated her extremely reasonably and fairly."
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