Donal MacIntyre

NEW DELHI, July 31 (Reuters) – A charity founded by Mother Teresa said on Sunday disabled children at one of its homes in India were restrained for their own safety, after a British television reporter filmed children tied to their beds.

Britain's Five News, in a programme to be broadcast on Monday, said it had uncovered "serious shortcomings" at a care centre run by the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta.

It secretly filmed many of the 59 children — aged six months to 12 years — living at the Daya Dan shelter tied by their ankles to their cots at night, restrained while being fed and left for up to 20 minutes on the toilet by their carers.

Read the rest of this entry →

File picture of a nun praying

London/Calcutta, July 31: A care centre of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta has been sucked into a controversy with a British TV channel claiming to have filmed a programme where disabled children are seen physically restrained.

The charity said the case of restraining a disabled child by "loosely tying a cloth around his ankle or hands" had been greatly exaggerated.

Journalist Donal MacIntyre said he had filmed undercover at Daya Dan, at Nimtala in north Calcutta, after being tipped off by two volunteers.

Read the rest of this entry →

The first edition of the Mac Intyre Underworld strand – `Gangster has  been shortlisted in the Grierson nominations for best documentary. The award is the most prestigious in British documentaries circles. The winner will be announced in Novermber. The `Gangster` show was directed and produced by Donal Mac Intyre, and the 72min feature was his debut as a director. SEE HERE FOR MORE

Read the rest of this entry →

LLoyd Page, my assistant, has recently finished a major study commissioned by me and MENCAP into the representation of learning disabled people in the media. The following is his article on it for the `British Journalism Review`.
Read the rest of this entry →

Following on his special News report on Mother Teresa's care homes in Calcutta for Five/Sky News Donal will be doing more international investigations for the channel. Watch out later this year for More Underworld – a remarkable look at Nazi Hate Rockers and more special reports on FIVE. Other newspaper reports and features regularly by the reporter are published in the Daily Mail,  The Guardian and New Statesman.
Read the rest of this entry →

Five News exposes ill-treatment of disabled youngsters at mother teresa's care home
Five News has uncovered serious shortcomings at a care centre run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, it was announced today.
This special investigation by Five's investigative reporter Donal MacIntyre, contains secret filming at the Daya-Dan centre, Mother Teresa's home for the learning disabled,  which is responsible for around 50 disabled children aged six months to 12 years. 

The film reveals:
-       children restrained whilst being fed
-       youngsters tethered by robe to their cots overnight
-       a group of children abandoned on the toilet
-       haphazard care and hygiene & degrading treatment 

{mosimage}

Read the rest of this entry →

An investigation into the Daya Dan home for learning disabled chldren in Calcutta, run by the Missionary of Charity Sisters, Mother Tereesa's order shows children tethered by the ankles in their cots. Former Operation's director of Mencap, Martin Gallagher, said that it shoddy and degrading. "As far as I am concerned it is a breech of their human rights".

The report for Five news and Sky, also found poor hygeine, haphazzard care and insensitive treatment.

Donal Writes:

I went undercover in the homes because I was contacted by very experienced aid workers who were horrified by what they saw in the Missionary of Charity Homes in Calcutta. They wrote of their concerns to the order but received no response. When I visited the home – it appeared that nothing had changed since they had worked there six months earlier. Indeed, the same criticisms, more or less, had been made of the homes for the last 11 years.

There are simply no circumstances in my mind why any learning disabled child should be tethered to a cot.

Read the rest of this entry →

Former MP Hilton Dawson seems to believe that only those who actually work in social services are entitled to express an opinion on a "lost generation" of young people (Letters, July 20).

The interviews I conducted with the two young drug dealers were in preparation for a doctorate thesis in criminology. The transcripts of the interviews were printed verbatim. I spent over a year among this group, and sourced opinions from the police and senior underworld figures to give credence to what they told me.

To describe reports of their lives and dreams, however dysfunctional and distasteful, as "horrible journalism" is to misunderstand the nature of reportage and indeed, academic research. I simply reported what was said. Unfortunately, sometimes the truth is unpleasant.

In order to tackle and offer genuine alternatives to these damaged youths, we first have to talk to them, try to understand them and then build upon that.

Wednesday July 27, 2005
Donal MacIntyre, London
Letters
The Guardian
http://society.guardian.co.uk/societyguardian/story/0,,1536283,00.html

Read the rest of this entry →