The task of editing a TV documentary about the alleged connection between the IRA and ousted Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi has caused a rather big scandal in the UK. Gamasutra reports that the ITV TV network in that country ran the documentary feature, Exposure - Gaddafi and the IRA, on Monday. At one point the documentary showed footage of a helicopter being shot down. The footage included the label "IRA Clip 1988" which would seem to suggest this was supposed to be some kind of found live action footage filmed during that time period
In fact, the footage was made by a gamer using Bohemia Interactive"s military shooter ArmA II, which was released for the PC in 2009. You can see the original game footage in the video below. Bohemia Interactive"s CEO Marek Spanel said that the company was not made aware of the footage from the game being placed into the documentary, saying, " ... we are very surprised to see in-game footage referred to in the documentary as real IRA film from 1988." He added, "We have no idea how this footage made it to the documentary. Our games are very open and allows users to freely do a lot of things, I see this is somehow a bizarre use of creative freedom."
ITV has since admitted, in an Associated Press article via the ABC News web site, that the footage in question was not in fact a real movie from 1988, saying, "This was an unfortunate case of human error for which we apologize." It also claimed that it did in fact have footage from a real helicopter attack by the IRA in 1988 but so far that video has yet to be shown. Meanwhile, Bohemia Interactive is currently working on ArmA III which it says will be released in 2012.