ITV rapped for passing off computer game footage as genuine IRA attack

Published on Tuesday 24 January 2012 00:00

ITV has been strongly criticised by the TV watchdog and found in breach of broadcasting rules for mistakenly claiming that a scene from a video game was footage of an IRA attack.

Viewers complained after the programme, Exposure: Gaddafi And The IRA, described the footage as IRA film of IRA members attempting to shoot down a British Army helicopter in 1988.

ITV later confirmed that the footage was taken from the internet, and was in fact from the video game Arma 2.

A further blunder occurred when the same programme, which examined the links between former Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi and the IRA, showed footage of police clashing with rioters.

The programme, broadcast in September last year, described the scene as a riot in the Ardoyne area of Belfast in July 2011.

Eagle-eyed viewers spotted that the type of police vehicles seen in the footage showed that it must have been an earlier riot.

Ofcom said that it was “very surprised” that programme-makers believed the helicopter attack footage was genuine.

It said that it was “concerned” that ITV failed to take proper steps to check both pieces of footage.

“The viewers of this serious current affairs programme were misled as to the nature of the material they were watching,” it said.

“This represented a significant breach of audience trust, particularly in the context of a public service broadcaster.”

Programme-makers ended up using the video game scene after attempting to find a fuller version of footage used in 1989 in investigative programme The Cook Report.

ITV apologised and said that the mistakes were the result of human error, and that it had not intended to mislead viewers.

Ofcom said that it had taken into account the apology, the removal of the programme from ITV’s catch-up service, and changes made to its compliance procedures.

The programme was found to be “materially misleading”, and broke the broadcasting code.