YESTERDAY (Wed- nesday) was the fifth anniversary of journalist and former Haslemere resident John Cantlie being taken hostage by Islamic State.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) called on the international community, and the British government, in particular, to renew efforts to secure his immediate release.

RSF’s UK bureau director Rebecca Vincent, said: “Today marks five long years that John Cantlie has been held in captivity by the Islamic State – five years deprived of his liberty, exploited, and used for propaganda purposes.

“We urge all relevant authorities to do their utmost to ensure John and his family do not have to endure another day of this hell, and that he is immediately brought home safely.”

The ex-Sunday Times reporter was kidnapped near the Turkish border in northern Syria, along with US journalist James Foley. Mr Foley was beheaded by IS in 2014, but Mr Cantlie has been used by IS to present 12 propaganda videos. The most recent, filmed in Mosul, was released in December 2016.

Mr Cantlie – who was listed on the electoral roll in Haslemere in 2008, before he began travelling regularly to the Middle East, remains one of 22 journalists and media contributors currently believed to be held hostage by IS.

Despite the fact that IS is losing ground in Iraq and Syria, there has been no information about the fate of the many missing journalists.

The BBC claimed last week the US and Allied forces fighting IS in Syria had allowed 4,000 armed terrorists of different nationalities to leave Raqqa – IS’s last stronghold in Syria – in a convoy heading for Turkey.

Mr Cantlie has not been heard of since December 2016, when ISIS released their last propaganda video featuring the former journalist as presenter in Mosul. It was the 12th time he had been used to lend credibility to their films.

He has not been heard of since, but it was reported by an Iraqi news agency in July, he had perished, but there has been no confirmation by the US Coalition or Iraqi Armed Forces. The Foreign Office asked that the reports were not carried by the British press and broadcasters at the time.

A French ISIS member claimed in ‘Paris Match’ magazine in October he saw Mr Cantlie alive in the regime’s capital Raqqa seven or eight months ago, fuelling hopes he could still be alive. The man claimed Mr Cantlie was working for the ISIS regime, speaking to prisoners and asking them about their conditions in jail.