'COMPLETELY lost the plot!' - BBC faces backlash after announcing podcast on ISIS bride Shamima Begum

BBC Sounds have announced their “highly anticipated” podcast on ISIS bride Shamima Begum will be available in the new year.

The Shamima Begum Story, from BBC Radio 5 live, will be available on Wednesday 11 January and will also broadcast weekly on BBC Radio 4 from the same date.

An accompanying World TV documentary will air at the start of February 2023 on BBC Two and iPlayer.

Begum is said to have given investigative journalist Josh Baker a detailed account of “what really happened” after she was discovered in Syria with the Islamic State group, four years after disappearing as a teenager from London.

The journalist meets Begum in a Syrian detention camp for the podcast that looks to establish “fact from fiction”, according to the BBC.

Many social media users have taken to Twitter to discuss the announcement from the broadcasting company.

One user questioned: “Why are they peddling her [Shamima Begum’s] propaganda?”

Social media users are divided over the podcast.
PA

Another said: “BBC launches the Shamima Begum podcast in order to garner sympathy for the ISIS monster. This is what BBC spends licence-payers’ money on.”

A further user added: “You’ve completely lost the plot!”

One user defended the BBC, saying: “It’s not Shamima Begum’s podcast, it’s Josh Baker who interviews her in a 10-part investigate series. I don’t see anything wrong with this?”

Speaking on the upcoming series, investigative journalist Baker said: "There are different ways to tell the Shamima Begum story.

“There’s the one about a 15-year-old schoolgirl who was groomed and lured to a war zone by ISIS and now needs saving from a Syrian detention camp.

“And there’s the one about a traitor, who fled Britain to join ISIS and became known the world over as a terrorist and must be stopped from coming back to Britain.

“As Shamima challenges the removal of her British citizenship by the UK government, I’ve examined her accounts to give listeners a definitive narrative on this complex, nuanced and shocking story."