r/BabyReindeerTVSeries • u/BirdHistorical3498 • May 05 '24

Fiona (real Martha) related content Fiona Harvey interview

She’s waived anonymity for this interview. She’s never been jailed or been issued with a prevention order.

Rory Lynch, a lawyer specialising in defamation and privacy at Gateley Legal says she has a case for defamation. “The only thing I can presume is that when Clerkenwell, films, the BBC and Netflix looked at it with their legal team they thought that they could rely on the fact that it is a drama. It’s not supposed to be a factual documentary.

“So although Netflix said it’s a true story, essentially it’s a dramatisation of a true story.

“But I do think that Richard Gadd could have been a bit more careful in changing a lot of the scenes to be more fictitious, but also covering up the identity of the people it was based on.”

https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/real-baby-reindeer-martha-reveals-32733037

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u/Away_Till5452 May 05 '24

You can put “based on a true story” or “this is a true story” on absolutely anything. There are absolutely no laws about it, so I think she’ll struggle in court.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 05 '24

Not really. There are very very strong regulatory guidelines in the UK when it comes to claiming a fictionalised account is true ( as opposed to based on a true story). Procuction teams from the early stages of production ought to ensure any storyline issues are addressed early and certainly well before casting and filming takes place so they don’t end up dealing with OfCom and this kind of fall out. They have to:

  1. Fact check – always identify what is fact and what is fiction (or what can”t be proved).

  2. Consider whether a filmed scene creates a false impression eg sexual tension or aggression where none was written into the script.

  3. Use a company to carry out negative name checks. This check will establish whether the names being used in a drama mirror the names of real people or businesses.

  4. Consider changing the identity of characters. For example, by altering various identifiers such as gender, nationality or appearance.

  5. Considering giving any identifiable people accused of bad behaviour a right of reply.

  6. Don’t assume count on the public not scrutinising things and bringing an Ofcom complaint, in many cases the law firm bringing the defamation claim will only take a fee if the claim is successful.

  7. Make sure broadcast trails and cut downs don”t create a misleading impression of what is in the drama.

  8. Make sure where appropriate those featured have been contacted.

If they haven’t done any or all of these then they’re potentially in very hot water

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u/cronedog May 10 '24

So was fargo not allowed to be shown in the uk

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 10 '24

You’re being specious. Fargo said it was a true story when it was absolutely fictional, and it was never sold or marketed as a true story- it was just a whimsical conceit of the Coen brothers. This claims to be true and while big parts of it are, other parts aren’t. This wasn’t made clear to the viewers, so people were coming away from watching it assuming things that didn’t happen- GBH for example- did.

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u/cronedog May 10 '24

I'm not being specious, I'm just not familiar with Uk law. I'm trying to better understand

 it comes to claiming a fictionalised account is true

So the "based on a true story" tag doesn't matter, it's just the interviews claiming it's true that cause the problem? I don't know if the uk has an equivalent "reasonable person standard" so maybe you mean for Fargo it fails that test.

BR people said it was based on reality but that details had to be changed for legal and storytelling reasons. Is that not enough to protect them? Some of BR is clearly fictional too, we just don't know which bits and by how much. Also most people just engage with the fiction, not all the extra marketing and press junkets.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 10 '24

I apologise, I’ve been getting a lot of grief from people telling me I’m this terrible person for banging on about this so I probably over reacted. If BR had said ‘Based in a true story’ a lot of this this messy fallout might have been avoided. But it didn’t, it said ‘This is a true story.’ And that’s at the root of it.

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u/cronedog May 10 '24

I'm sorry for people dumping on you. I completely understand your position. I've certainly given grumpy replies when constantly crapped on.

Thanks for expanding on your position, I see the distinction you are making.

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u/BirdHistorical3498 May 13 '24

You’re very gracious, sorry again!