<p>Britain's broadcast regulator Ofcom has ruled that the ITV channel misled viewers by airing footage claimed to have been shot by the Irish Republican Army, which was actually material taken from a video game.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The video game material was used in the documentary titled 'Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA' in September last.<br /><br />The channel apologised after the issue came to light, saying it was "an unfortunate case of human error".<br /><br />Ofcom today said it was a "significant breach of audience trust".<br /><br />In the documentary, footage labelled "IRA Film 1988" was shown, described as film shot by the IRA of its members attempting to shoot down a British Army helicopter in June 1988.<br /><br />But, the pictures were actually taken from a game called ArmA 2. Ofcom said in its ruling that it was "not sufficient for a broadcaster or programme maker to rely on footage provided by a third party source, on the basis that that source had previously supplied other broadcasters with archive footage".<br /><br />It added: "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.<br /><br />However, the viewers of this serious current affairs programme were misled as to the nature of the material they were watching."</p>
<p>Britain's broadcast regulator Ofcom has ruled that the ITV channel misled viewers by airing footage claimed to have been shot by the Irish Republican Army, which was actually material taken from a video game.<br /><br /></p>.<p>The video game material was used in the documentary titled 'Exposure: Gaddafi and the IRA' in September last.<br /><br />The channel apologised after the issue came to light, saying it was "an unfortunate case of human error".<br /><br />Ofcom today said it was a "significant breach of audience trust".<br /><br />In the documentary, footage labelled "IRA Film 1988" was shown, described as film shot by the IRA of its members attempting to shoot down a British Army helicopter in June 1988.<br /><br />But, the pictures were actually taken from a game called ArmA 2. Ofcom said in its ruling that it was "not sufficient for a broadcaster or programme maker to rely on footage provided by a third party source, on the basis that that source had previously supplied other broadcasters with archive footage".<br /><br />It added: "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.<br /><br />However, the viewers of this serious current affairs programme were misled as to the nature of the material they were watching."</p>