A video has emerged on Youtube purporting to show a British journalist who is apparently being held by Islamic State.
The man is a writer and photographer who has worked for British national newspapers who says that he was captured by IS after entering Syria in November 2012.
In the slickly-produced video he is sat at a desk wearing an orange top and addresses the camera, apparently reading from a script.
He says: “I know what you’re thinking, he’s only doing this because he’s a prisoner, because he’s got a gun at his head and he’s being forced to do this. Right?
“It’s true I am a prisoner, that I cannot deny.”
“But seeing as I’ve been abandoned by my government and my fate now lies in the hands of IS I have nothing to lose.
“Maybe I will live and maybe I will die. I want to take this opportunity to convey some facts that if you contemplate might help preserving lives.
“Over next few programmes I am going to show you the truth as the western media tries to drag the public back to another disastrous war with the Islamic State.
“I am going to show you the truth behind the systems and motivations of the Islamic State.”
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