PRAGUE (AFP) - Best-selling author J.K. Rowling has been challenged by a Czech lawmaker to visit childrens' and psychiatric institutions she has attacked as inhumane, CTK news agency said Thursday.

"Since you opened your mouth, the work of our employees has been the subject of unjustified criticism," said Miloslav Macela in a letter sent to the Harry Potter author.

Macela shares responsibility for social care services in the central Pardubice region.

Rowling put Czech care institutions under the spotlight in 2004 when she denounced the "barbaric" use of caged beds in an article in Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, highlighting one institution in the Pardubice region where children were reported to be imprisoned almost all day.

Last year, she attacked the Czech Republic for topping the European league for putting children in institutional care.

The Czech government passed legislation banning the use of caged beds and beds with nets at social care institutions from the start of 2007.

It agreed on Wednesday to revise existing laws over restrictions on patients at psychiatric institutions controlled by the health ministry.

A documentary screened by Britain's BBC at the start of the year alleged that some Czech institutions still used caged beds in breach of the law.

The social affairs ministry said barriers at the side of beds to prevent patients falling out and hurting themselves were permitted and denounced the documentary as rigged.

Source: AFP