2019 video Viral as Recent Coverage of Chandrayaan 3 by BBC

On 23 August 2023, India witnessed with pride as Chandrayaan 3 safely touched down on the surface of the Moon. This achievement made India the first country in the world to land a spacecraft on the South Pole of the lunar surface. The event was followed by a flood of congratulatory messages directed towards the scientists of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), who made this remarkable feat possible.

Amidst the celebrations on social media surrounding this achievement, a video of BBC’s coverage of the Indian Moon Mission was shared. The video depicted the BBC News Presenter posing a question to his Indian Correspondent, “I think that more than 700 million Indians lack access to a toilet. Should they really be spending this sort of money on a space program?”

Archived Link

This statement stirred frustration among many Indians, who found the coverage distasteful and perceived it as emanating from envy, especially given that Britain has yet to accomplish a similar feat. Stand-Up Comedian Appurv Gupta wrote, “Hey BBC,

This is the mindset which needs to be changed. You guys just want us to focus on one problem so that none of us will see the dream and never aspire to become the best or do something which is not being done yet. 

We are working on everything. Working on one plan doesn’t mean we are not working on another. Hopefully our poverty will reduced and we will be launching more such programs in future.”

However, upon conducting a thorough fact-check of the video, we discovered that it is indeed a segment from the BBC. However, it does not pertain to the Chandrayaan 3 mission. Rather, the coverage dates back to 2019, when India launched the Chandrayaan 2 mission. Here is the fact check.

Fact Check

We did a keyword search on Google and found the video being shared as recent coverage of Chandrayaan 3 by BBC on YouTube. A YouTube channel called Videsh TV on 22 July 2019 posted the video. This video was uploaded on YouTube on the same day when ISRO had launched Chandrayaan 2. Thus, it is clear that the video being shared as recent coverage by BBC is old.

BBC News Press team also clarified on X (formerly Twitter) that the video in question is from 2019 and has nothing to do with the coverage of Chandrayaan 3. They also shared a link to show their recent coverage of Chandrayaan 3.

Archived Link

This was quoted by the Head of BBC News, India, Rupa Jha in her post on X. She requested everyone to stop spreading misinformation about BBC Coverage of Chandrayaan 3. 

Chandrayaan 3 has propelled India into an exclusive league of countries that have achieved the remarkable feat of landing a spacecraft on the lunar surface. Only three have accomplished this milestone prior to India: the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), the United States of America (USA), and China. However, India stands out as the sole country to have achieved a successful lunar landing at the South Pole.

With the successful touchdown of Vikram, the lander module of Chandrayaan 3, on the lunar surface, the spotlight has shifted to the rover, Pragyaan. Once deployed, the Pragyaan rover will traverse the moon’s terrain, collecting invaluable data to contribute to scientific research.

Conclusion

The video that has been widely circulated on social media, purported to be BBC’s coverage of Chandrayaan 3, has been revealed to be outdated through our investigation. The video in question actually pertains to a BBC coverage from 2019, focusing on Chandrayaan 2.