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# Why covering ISRO is a pain
- URL: https://balaustine.mymagic.page/why-covering-isro-is-a-pain/
- Published: 2019-07-16T09:13:36.000Z
- Updated: 2019-07-16T09:13:36.000Z
- Author: VM
- Tags: Scicomm, access journalism, Chandrayaan 2, GSLV Mk-III, Indian Space Research Organisation, ISRO, Lok Sabha, Tamil cinema, #Migrated-1787483357778, #wp, #wp-post, #Import 2026-08-23 11:09

The following is a bulleted list of reasons why covering developments on the Indian spaceflight programme can be nerve-wracking.

- ISRO does not have a media engagement policy that lays out when it will communicate information to journalists and how, so there is seldom a guarantee of correctness when reporting developing events
- ISRO's updates themselves are haphazard: sometimes they're tweeted, sometimes they're issued as singles lines on their websites, sometimes there's a 'media release', sometimes there's a PIB release, and so on
- As opposed to the organisation itself, ISRO members can be gabby – but you can never tell exactly who is going to be gabby or when
- Some ISRO scientists insert important information in the middle of innocuous speeches delivered at minor events in schools and colleges
- Every once in a while, one particular publication will become 'blessed' with sources within the org. and churn out page after page of updates+
- Like the male superstars of Tamil cinema, ISRO benefits from the pernicious jingoism it is almost always surrounded with but does nothing to dispel it (ref. [the mental cost](https://7idal.wordpress.com/2017/07/03/what-it-means-to-give-fucks/?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page) of walking some beats over others)
- There is a policy that says employees of Indian institutions don't have to seek the okay of their superiors to speak to the press unless when speaking ill; ISRO's own and more stringent policy supersedes it
- There are four ways to acquire any substantive information (beyond getting close to officials and following the 'blessed' publications): bots that crawl the `isro.gov.in` domain looking for PDFs, Q&A records of the Lok/Rajya Sabha, Indian language newspapers that cover local events, and former employees
- If a comprehensive history of ISRO exists, it is bound to be in someone's PhD thesis, locked up in the annals of a foreign publication or found scattered across the Indian media landscape, so covering ISRO has to be a full-time job that leaves room or time for little else
- Information, and even commentary, will flow freely when everything is going well; when shit hits the fan, there is near-complete silence
- In similar vein, journalists publishing any criticism of ISRO almost never hear from any officials within the org.
- (A relatively minor point in this company) I don't think anyone knows what [the copyright restrictions](https://thewire.in/space/ekta-kapoor-mangalyaan-altbalaji-isro-copyright?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page) on ISRO-produced images and videos are, so much so that NASA's images of ISRO's assets are easier to use

+ I say this without disparaging the journalist, who must have worked hard to cultivate such a network. The problem is that ISRO has constantly privileged such networks over more systematic engagement, forcing journalists to resort to [access journalism](https://theoutline.com/post/1604/access-journalism-is-not-for-you-or-me?ref=balaustine.mymagic.page).