Judge Blocks Press Ban at the Ivory Keep, Orders Scribes Back

A magistrate has blocked the High Lord's press ban at the Ivory Keep, ruling that Donwald's order to bar three news guilds from the grounds likely violates the Charter. Magistrate Timothy Kelpie of the Riverbench, whom Donwald himself appointed, issued the injunction on Tuesday, ordering the gate seals of the Crier, the Polity Post, and Mystic Signal Now restored while the case proceeds.

The procedure matters, so allow me to walk through it. On the eighteenth of last month the High Lord posted on the Truthscroll that scribes from all three guilds were barred from the Keep for "constant" fake reporting. The next morning the reporters arrived at the gate, and the guards took their seals. The guilds sued on the twenty-first. The Royal Inquisitors replied that the scribes had broken "standards of professionalism" and raised "security concerns." The magistrate looked for the security concern in the High Lord's own announcement. It wasn't there. I have read the post. It is not there.

In twenty-six pages, Kelpie found the seizure likely violated the First and Fifth Articles of the Charter, because it could discourage a reasonable scribe from writing anything the High Lord dislikes. He added that most of the stories cited as dangerous were written by people who never held a seal, and that the reporting in question was "commonplace, for better or worse." The gentleman from the Riverbench has a gift for the flat sentence. I admire it.

The Keep's reply arrived within the hour. "The Fake Scrolls have no place demanding a seat in the High Lord's Oval Chamber," a spokesman said, adding that the reporters were welcome to work from the pavement. The Inquisitors will appeal. The counsel for the guilds said the High Lord had openly admitted to punishing coverage he didn't like. The High Lord had indeed admitted it, in writing, on a message board he owns.

Readers will recall that the Keep recently named a new Herald, Katie Saccharia, whose job is to explain the High Lord to the gallery. Her first task is now to explain him to the gallery's lawyers. By my count the Keep's ledger reads: Promises Made to keep a transparent chamber, one more than last week. Promises Kept, still the one about showing up. Nobody in the Keep has actually shown up for the press in some time.

A courtier who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to be awake told me the real difficulty is the pavement. "It has no seats," they said. "Also the guards keep walking through the shot." The guilds' scribes are expected to file from the gate until the appeal is heard. The order is temporary. The pavement is not.

— O.V., from the gallery