At the stroke of our breakfast hour yesterday, the top court of the country announced that privacy is a fundamental right. A nine-judge bench that was presided over by Chief Justice JS Khehar observed that privacy was enshrined in Article 21 and Part III of the Constitution. The CJI took five odd minutes to deliver the judgment. And that immediately made for celebrations… Twitterverse chimed in with the applause as everyone began to thank the Supreme Court for a landmark judgment and the legal counsels and lawyers who were at the forefront of the entire privacy debate. And not to forget, the petitioners.

Unlike the triple talaq gaffe, this time, the court reporters and news anchors diligently reported the updates from the court and waited for the 547-page written judgment that came out in the afternoon. But as soon as it was out, social media began to make noise about the silence of the Centre, especially PM Narendra Modi, who lauded the top court’s judgment on triple talaq two days back but chose to remain silent on Thursday’s verdict. However, IT and Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad jumped in soon, to silence the critics of the government and said this:

Tweeple did not spare him. But that’s a different debate altogether. What we are talking about is the media’s diligence in the coverage of the verdict. While the beefed up security in Panchkula and Sirsa ahead of the Ram Rahim verdict today and Didi’s “divide and rule politics” got some attention, the prime focus of TV channels continued to be the 9-0 unanimous verdict on privacy. And to everyone’s surprise, not one news channel claimed “XX’s relentless coverage forced change” or “YY’s relentless campaign impact”.

Cut to prime time news starting from 9 pm, as the countdown for the Ram Rahim verdict began, the focus of all English news channels continued to be right to privacy, except one channel. Any guesses? Sample this screenshot:

As the channel did its “super exclusive” on “privacy for sale”, their prime time was dedicated to Mamata Banerjee’s “festival politics”. The usual banter between a BJP spokesperson and a spokesperson from the party of the politician in question took precedence over the privacy verdict, perhaps after the law minister’s erroneous U-turn on the government’s stand on privacy as a fundamental right. Ten minutes into the debate, Republic TV’s Commander-in-chief Arnab Goswami, in his usual charm, said this to Sadhan Pande, a minister from West Bengal:

“I am asking you Mr Pande, why are you uttering so many untruths on the programme? Will I not correct you? Mr Pande, you are a senior politician but I will have to tear you apart….”

And he might have. But we didn’t have the heart to see that. We switched channels only to realise that “India’s No.1” channel, Times Now was also caught up in the same debate over “Durga puja divide” and “divide and rule politics” of Mamata Banerjee. Some people took to twitter to poke fun at them for their editorial judgment.

However, all other channels were conducting debates and discussions with a good and diverse line up of panelists. For instance, Rajdeep Sardesai’s show on India Today had a five-member panel that had equal representation from the petitioners’ and the Centre’s side.

Similarly, CNN-News18, NDTV, NewsX and Mirror Now had informative discussions with relevant panelists well-equipped with the answers for all the questions the janata may have had.

While most of the panelists, be it a lawyer or an activist, lauded the court’s stand on Section 377, the most important question looming over everyone’s head was the impact of today’s judgment on the Aadhaar case that is to be heard by a smaller bench in the coming days. Most of the panelists on all channels echoed a similar answer to the question. For instance, Dushyant Dave, one of the top lawyers of the country who has also been batting for privacy, said, “The state is no longer powerful but the citizens have been empowered by the Supreme Court.” This panel was free of any politicians.

CNN-News18, though it had a Congress and a BJP spokespersons on the panel, the discussion was far from being political, except for a brief banter between them over the law minister’s statement today.

Interestingly, one panelist was popular across channels — Harish Iyer, gay rights activist. With five judges of the nine judge bench finding Section 377 violative of the right to privacy, it became a point of discussion on all channels. Even as lawyers across panels categorically stated that the court’s stand on Section 377 was one of the key takeaways from the judgment, they also said that it was premature to comment on whether it would be revoked. As Arghya Sengupta, who argued against privacy in the SC, said on one of the panels, “that’s the true landmark part of the judgment” and added that it laid a foundation stone for the section to be “struck down”.

Times Now, however, woke up to it much later than other channels. But what stood out for Times Now and Mirror Now was its engagement with the audience. Both channels opened their phone lines to take calls from viewers, in case anyone wanted any clarification from the expert panelists. And unlike the usual, this time their top band read “Victory for every Indian”, a refreshing change in the impact-claiming-journalism of today.

The author can be contacted on Twitter @shrutimenon10.