Dan McDougall
Encyclopedia
Dan McDougall is a Scots foreign correspondent
. A former New Delhi
-based South Asia Correspondent for The Observer
Newspaper (London
) he has filed reportage from over 50 countries including India
, China
, Pakistan
, Afghanistan
, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Lebanon
and the Palestinian territories
. Dan was voted the British Foreign Journalist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards
held in March at the Grosvenor House Hotel
in Central London.
The Judges also commended an undercover
investigation by the Scot documenting the lives of the so-called Glotelli - women drug mules who risk their lives by smuggling heroin from the Afghan Border to Moscow
in their stomachs. In 2007/8 Dan McDougall was shortlisted for The Paul Foot Award
for Campaigning Investigative Journalism for work exposing child refugee workers in the supply chain
of the UK Retail Giant Primark
and the exploitation of child workers as young as 8 in the Cotton Fields of Egypt's Nile Valley.
He was also commended in The One World Awards of the same year for an undercover Investigation into the international trafficking of African child footballers from the Ivory Coast and Ghana
to Paris
and the 2007/2008 Press Gazette Magazine Awards, in the British Magazine Feature Writer of the Year category, for a series of articles including a reportage feature on the suffering of Italy's marginalised Roma population.
McDougall's foreign reportage has appeared in magazine
s, periodicals and newspaper
s worldwide including The Guardian
, The Sunday Times
, The Times
, The Sunday Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, Stern Magazine
, Periodica El Mundo, El Semenal, Le Figaro
, Panorama Italia, L'Espresso, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Ecologist
, Marie Claire
and Mail on Sunday Live Magazine.
In 2007 McDougall's undercover investigations in India exposed a supplier to the US Retail Giant, Gap Inc
for employing bonded child slaves
as young as 10 and 11. Gap later withdrew tens of thousands of garments from sale prompting the GAP CEO Marka Hansen to make an unprecedented statement on the matter. Issuing a full and frank public apology Hansen stated on CNN
: "It's deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us. So I feel violated and I feel very, very upset and angry with our vendor and the sub-contractor who made this very, very unwise decision. It's absolute horror. You know. It's just sickening. There's nothing I can tell you but you know as a mother child labor
is absolutely unacceptable for us as a corporation, for me as an individual. I can't think of anything worse."
During the course of his investigations into child labour in India
, Pakistan
, Bangladesh
and Sri Lanka
, which have also shamed the major retailers Esprit
and Heine Otto, McDougall has been regularly threatened and, an occasion, beaten attempting to force his way into sweatshops. In 2007 the US-based Ethisphere Magazine voted the Scotsman as one of the world's most influential journalist in the field of ethical trading.
Dan McDougall is married to the BBC Journalist and presenter Navdip Dhariwal.
Following the announcement, Primark created a microsite containing a video explaining how it investigated the Panorama programme and submitted its case to the BBC Trust.
The Trust said it appeared that a 45 second clip used on the programme in which two boys were seen stitching clothing was faked. It said the sequined items appeared to have been purchased elsewhere and given to the boys, and pointed out that the large needles they were filmed using were not compatible with the work being done.
The Trust also ordered Panorama to hand back the Royal Television Society Award that the programme had collected for the Primark expose.
In a statement McDougall rejected the findings. He said: “I have rarely seen a finding so unjust in outcome, flawed in process and deeply damaging to independent investigative journalism.”
Foreign correspondent
Foreign Correspondent may refer to:*Foreign correspondent *Foreign Correspondent , an Alfred Hitchcock film*Foreign Correspondent , an Australian current affairs programme...
. A former New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
-based South Asia Correspondent for The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
Newspaper (London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) he has filed reportage from over 50 countries including India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, The Democratic Republic of the Congo, The Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
and the Palestinian territories
Palestinian territories
The Palestinian territories comprise the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Since the Palestinian Declaration of Independence in 1988, the region is today recognized by three-quarters of the world's countries as the State of Palestine or simply Palestine, although this status is not recognized by the...
. Dan was voted the British Foreign Journalist of the Year at the 2009 British Press Awards
British Press Awards
The British Press Awards is an annual ceremony that celebrates the best of British journalism. Established in the 1970s, honours are voted on by a panel of journalists and newspaper executives...
held in March at the Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House Hotel
Grosvenor House is a large and luxurious hotel. The iconic Mayfair, London hotel is owned by the Sahara Group. The name has also been licensed to a property in Dubai....
in Central London.
Awards and Commendations
In 2009 McDougall was voted Foreign Correspondent of the Year at the British Press Awards for a series of reportage articles including an investigation exposing the plight of China's Execution Orphans - children left destitute by the execution of their parents in Xian, Central China.The Judges also commended an undercover
Undercover
Being undercover is disguising one's own identity or using an assumed identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information or to gain the trust of targeted individuals in order to gain information or evidence...
investigation by the Scot documenting the lives of the so-called Glotelli - women drug mules who risk their lives by smuggling heroin from the Afghan Border to Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...
in their stomachs. In 2007/8 Dan McDougall was shortlisted for The Paul Foot Award
Paul Foot Award
The Paul Foot Award is an award given for investigative or campaigning journalism, set up by The Guardian and Private Eye in memory of the journalist Paul Foot, who died in 2004....
for Campaigning Investigative Journalism for work exposing child refugee workers in the supply chain
Supply chain
A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
of the UK Retail Giant Primark
Primark
Primark is a clothing retailer, operating over 223 stores in Ireland , the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Spain, Portugal and Belgium...
and the exploitation of child workers as young as 8 in the Cotton Fields of Egypt's Nile Valley.
He was also commended in The One World Awards of the same year for an undercover Investigation into the international trafficking of African child footballers from the Ivory Coast and Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the 2007/2008 Press Gazette Magazine Awards, in the British Magazine Feature Writer of the Year category, for a series of articles including a reportage feature on the suffering of Italy's marginalised Roma population.
McDougall's foreign reportage has appeared in magazine
Magazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, periodicals and newspaper
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
s worldwide including The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, The Sunday Telegraph, the Independent on Sunday, Stern Magazine
Stern (magazine)
Stern is a weekly news magazine published in Germany. It was founded in 1948 by Henri Nannen, and is currently published by Gruner + Jahr, a subsidiary of Bertelsmann. In the first quarter of 2006, its print run was 1.019 million copies and it reached 7.84 million readers according to...
, Periodica El Mundo, El Semenal, Le Figaro
Le Figaro
Le Figaro is a French daily newspaper founded in 1826 and published in Paris. It is one of three French newspapers of record, with Le Monde and Libération, and is the oldest newspaper in France. It is also the second-largest national newspaper in France after Le Parisien and before Le Monde, but...
, Panorama Italia, L'Espresso, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Ecologist
The Ecologist
The Ecologist is a British environmental publication founded in 1970 by Edward Goldsmith. It addresses a wide range of environmental subjects and promotes an ecological systems thinking approach through its news stories, investigations and opinion articles. The Ecologist encourages its readers to...
, Marie Claire
Marie Claire
Marie Claire is a monthly women's magazine first published in France but also distributed in other countries with editions specific to them and in their languages. While each country shares its own special voice with its audience, the United States edition focuses on women around the world and...
and Mail on Sunday Live Magazine.
Campaigning Against Child Labor in South Asia
McDougall's investigations into Primark, a UK fashion retailer, were broadcast as part of a Panorama programme for the BBC in 2008. However, in the years following the programme, Primark has successfully proven that the footage used in the documentary was falsified and no wrongdoing occurred.In 2007 McDougall's undercover investigations in India exposed a supplier to the US Retail Giant, Gap Inc
Gap (clothing retailer)
The Gap, Inc. is an American clothing and accessories retailer based in San Francisco, California, and founded in 1969 by Donald G. Fisher and Doris F. Fisher. The company has five primary brands: the namesake Gap banner, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Athleta. As of September 2008,...
for employing bonded child slaves
Child slavery
-History:In the past, many children have been sold into slavery in order for their family to repay debts or for crimes. Sometimes this is also to give the children a better life than what they had with their family....
as young as 10 and 11. Gap later withdrew tens of thousands of garments from sale prompting the GAP CEO Marka Hansen to make an unprecedented statement on the matter. Issuing a full and frank public apology Hansen stated on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
: "It's deeply, deeply disturbing to all of us. So I feel violated and I feel very, very upset and angry with our vendor and the sub-contractor who made this very, very unwise decision. It's absolute horror. You know. It's just sickening. There's nothing I can tell you but you know as a mother child labor
Child labor
Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries...
is absolutely unacceptable for us as a corporation, for me as an individual. I can't think of anything worse."
During the course of his investigations into child labour in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
and Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is a country off the southern coast of the Indian subcontinent. Known until 1972 as Ceylon , Sri Lanka is an island surrounded by the Indian Ocean, the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait, and lies in the vicinity of India and the...
, which have also shamed the major retailers Esprit
Esprit Holdings
Esprit Holdings Limited is a publicly owned manufacturer of apparel, footwear, accessories, jewellery and housewares under the Esprit label. The company is headquartered in Kowloon, Hong Kong, and Ratingen , Germany. In the 2007–2008 business year, Esprit Holdings Limited generated a worldwide...
and Heine Otto, McDougall has been regularly threatened and, an occasion, beaten attempting to force his way into sweatshops. In 2007 the US-based Ethisphere Magazine voted the Scotsman as one of the world's most influential journalist in the field of ethical trading.
Dan McDougall is married to the BBC Journalist and presenter Navdip Dhariwal.
Panorama Apology
On June 16 2011 the BBC announced that it would apologise to Primark after an investigation by the BBC Trust ruled that McDougall had faked footage of young Indian boys stitching items of clothing. The Trust investigated the programme following a complaint by Primark over scenes which the company said were not genuine. In a report, the Trust said it had investigated the programme and found that “On the balance of probabilities, it was more likely than not that the footage was not authentic."Following the announcement, Primark created a microsite containing a video explaining how it investigated the Panorama programme and submitted its case to the BBC Trust.
The Trust said it appeared that a 45 second clip used on the programme in which two boys were seen stitching clothing was faked. It said the sequined items appeared to have been purchased elsewhere and given to the boys, and pointed out that the large needles they were filmed using were not compatible with the work being done.
The Trust also ordered Panorama to hand back the Royal Television Society Award that the programme had collected for the Primark expose.
In a statement McDougall rejected the findings. He said: “I have rarely seen a finding so unjust in outcome, flawed in process and deeply damaging to independent investigative journalism.”