Odisha court issues notice on media gag order

The Odisha High Court has issued notice to the state authorities over an order by a government hospital in June banning entry of media persons to its wards, a petitioner said Wednesday.

The superintendent of the Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College and Hospital at Cuttack, 26 km from here, issued an order June 28 directing that no person other than the attendants of patients would be allowed to enter its premises without official permission.

Doctors and hospitals staff were also barred from speaking to media persons without prior permission from the hospital authorities.

The authorities issued the order in the wake of a strike by junior doctors protesting the arrest of one of their colleagues for allegedly attacking a media person.

Challenging the order, rights activist and lawyer Nishikanta Mishra filed a writ petition in the high court.

A division bench of the high court comprising Chief Justice C. Nagappan and Justice Indrajit Mohanty Tuesday directed officials of the state government and the hospital authorities to file their responses within two weeks, Mishra told IANS.