A Danish news channel has admitted that it used an image of Damascus taken from a computer game in a news report on the Syrian civil war.
Instead of a photograph, the backdrop for presenter Cecilie Beck’s introduction to the news piece was a still taken from the violent video game “Assassin’s Creed”.
After the opening sequence showing real images of burnt out cars and other debris from the violent conflict that has seen more than 70,000 killed, TV2 News settled upon a cartoon image showing the turrets and spires of the Syrian capital.
The picture, taken from the adventure game, is a fictional version of how Damascus might have looked 720 years ago.
Jacob Nybroe, the head of news at TV2, apologised after the blunder on February 26 was highlighted on social networking sites.
Danish media reported that a graphic designer had found and pulled the image from a clip on YouTube. The Danish news website Politiken reported that the employee believed it was a genuine picture.
The first series of the popular adventure game Assassin’s Creed is set in the Middle East, including in historic Damascus. In the game the player has to complete side quests, which often involve free running, climbing and stealth, before receiving an “assassin quest” from a “Brotherhood guidemaster” in the area.
The Danish blunder follows a number of recent mistakes by television news channels: The BBC recently used a logo from Halo instead of that of the United Nations. Last year ITV mistakenly used a scene from the video game Arma2 in a programme about an IRA attack.
Source: Telegraph.co.uk