Ofcom condemn ITV game footage

Broadcasting watchdog Ofcom has finally come out and condemned ITV for using footage from game Arma 2 and claiming in a documentary that it was actually the IRA taking down a helicopter.

Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA caused controversy when it was discovered that in-game footage from Arma 2 had been falsely used to depict actual events. Several viewers alerted the watchdog after realising what the broadcaster had done.

The documentary was broadcast in October of last year, and Ofcom has only now got round to declaring their dissatisfaction with ITV over the incident.

There was also another incident within the same documentary involving the validity of another piece of footage. The broadcaster claimed they were both down to human error, but that hasn't stopped Ofcom from saying this in their enforcement bulletin:

"According to ITV both mistakes in this case were the result of human error, and that some steps were taken to verify the content of the footage used.... We were very surprised that the programme makers believed the footage of the helicopter attack was authentic, and we were particularly concerned that ITV failed to double-check.... despite the concerns over the internet footage expressed by the ITV Compliance team."

"We take into account that ITV: apologised; removed the programme from its catch-up video-on-demand service; and, has now put in place various changes to its compliance procedures to ensure such incidents do not happen in future."

"However, the viewers of this serious current affairs programme were misled as to the nature of the material they were watching. In the circumstances, this represented a significant breach of audience trust, particularly in the context of a public service broadcaster. As such, Ofcom considered the programme to be materially misleading, in breach of Rule 2.2."