Subcathoin

A UK television network that passed off video game footage as the real thing in an IRA documentary last year was found in breach of British broadcast rules today.

In the ruling, published today, Ofcom said ITV mislead their audience in both the Exposure - Gaddafi and the IRA documentary by claiming video game footage of a helicopter being shot down was actual footage. 

In the September 2011 documentary a voice can be heard saying, “With Gaddafi’s heavy machine guns it was possible to shoot down a helicopter as the terrorists own footage of 1988 shows.”

On screen, viewers see footage of what appears to be a heavy machine gun mounted into the bed of a camouflage-painted pick-up truck firing at a distant helicopter. The words IRA film 1988 are displayed over the video. 

Viewers familiar with video game ARMA 2, though, recognized the footage as gameplay.

ITV told Ofcom that they were trying to find a “fuller and better version” of the real footage of the attack first seen in Cook Report’s Blood Money program. When the program director viewed the game footage, found online, he mistakenly believed it to be a fuller version of the footage used in the Cook Report.

“Although there were clear differences between the two pieces of footage, his memory over the ensuing period of time let him down and led him to believe it was the same footage,” according to the report.

The program director never went back to verify the footage, according to the report, even after an ITV Compliance member questioned the video’s authenticity.

The mistake was a case of “human error, ITV said. It was not ITV’s intention to mislead viewers and the use of the wrong footage was in no way deliberate.”

ITV said the same thing about a second error contained in the documentary, which used the wrong footage to show a July 2011 Belfast Riot. In that case, the footage was real, but not from the correct riot.

The channel says that they have removed the program from their online player and have created a new compliance system to help prevent similar errors from occurring in the future. 

In delivering their report Ofcom said they were “very surprised” that the producers confused video game footage with actual events. 

Ofcom Broadcast Bulletin [Ofcom]