Some hospitals in Pittsburgh have banned the city’s daily newspaper, the Post-Gazette, from sale in their gift shops.
The newspaper reports that three University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) hospitals have instituted the ban over what a spokesman called “fairness issues” relating to the paper’s coverage of the health system.
According to the Post-Gazette’s circulation director, Randy Waugaman, gift shop workers at the hospitals told the paper’s representatives that “they were ordered” to take the paper off sale “by their superiors and it was out of their control”.
The PG’s executive editor, David Shribman, the newspaper’s executive editor, said: “We believe that our coverage of UPMC has been fair-minded in every respect.
“Every entity in every town feels aggrieved at some point by what a good newspaper writes. It’s part of living in a free society where the exchange of news and information is prized, not punished”.
Publisher John Robinson Block said the paper had “the same goal that UPMC was established for - to serve the public’s interest”.
According to the paper’s article, health system officials have criticised stories, editorials and cartoons in recent years. The PG recently published stories about UPMC’s transplant programme being placed on probation over its handling of donor organs.
Source: Post-Gazette
