The Mayor maintains three elite espionage subdepartments, the members of whom report directly to him.
The Office of Insight (or "INSIGHT") devotes itself to finding out what is happening in the corridors of power. The Colonel doesn't trust the reports he receives from the various ministers. Insight is mandated to take whatever measures are necessary to defuse unfortunate situations within the government.
The Office of Hindsight (or "HINDSIGHT") is the organ responsible for watching the government's back and deflecting any daggers aimed in that direction - and indeed returning fire. It functions much like Insight, and devotes its attention to known threats such as established mobs and the Embassies of the Four Nations.
The Office of Foresight (or "FORESIGHT") is given responsibility for looking into and meddling with threats that the government isn't even aware of yet. Its members effectively have carte blanche to poke their noses anywhere they reckon they might catch a whiff of sedition, treason, conspiracy, plotting, and whatnot.
One of the offshoots of Foresight is the Sociopolitical Topography Section (or "the Section"), the ornately-named secret police who seek to determine and manipulate the views of the man in the street. (The Section receives instructions from Foresight, but itself consists of undercover Watchdogs from the Loyal Order and pen-pushers from the Ministry of Friendship.)
The Section sends agents out to linger in the pubs and taverns of the City, in order to listen in and see what the word on the street is, and they seek out unacceptable opinions in the newspapers and direct the Watchdogs to illegal printing presses and that sort of thing.
Colonel Zero does not mind newspapers who criticise the government. He regards them as useful: if they happen to expose official corruption, he can then act on it and look impressive when he explains how the whole thing is a shocking scandal and he's going to make damn sure heads are going to roll over this. Similarly, newspapers who say bad things about *him* serve their own purpose: if people start taking them seriously, he knows he's in trouble.
What isn't tolerated is any of the following:
The Mayor's Office is based in the Imperial Palace, which towers over the city and is right next to the wall. The Emperor is imprisoned in his War-Room in the basement; the Mayor's office is somewhere in the middle. At the top of the tallest tower an ornate bridge arcs upwards to the Emperor's Gate in the Wall, and past the gate the bridge arcs down again to the tallest tower in the deserted Imperial Mirror-Palace.