Forget the propaganda. This is what you should know about John Cantlie

A second video has been released by Isis featuring British photojournalist John Cantlie.

Video experts believe Mr Cantlie is being held under severe duress by Isis (who call themselves the Islamic State) and may have been forced to read from a script. These are not the images we should associate with Mr Cantlie.

A freelance British photojournalist, he has written and recorded videos for the Sunday Times, the Sun and the Telegraph as well as taking scores of photographs which give us an insight into life in Afghanistan and Syria...

Syrian opposition fighters pass an old man as they patrol the northern city of Aleppo in November, 2012.

Cantlie was kidnapped in July 2012, alongside fellow freelance photojournalist Jeroen Oerlemans.

The Independent's Kim Sengupta, who had been in the region around the same time, said that the jihadist groups were in a minority at that time and the rebels in Syria were grateful that journalists were there to report on the atrocities of the regime.

I met Cantlie again in London, in September 2012. He was going back to Syria and wanted to meet the fighters I knew who had said they’d helped to free him.

I, too, was supposed to be returning to Aleppo and there were vague plans to meet up. But I was diverted, and in November, while I was in Gaza for the Israeli offensive, I heard that John had been kidnapped again and, with him, Jim Foley.

• Kim Sengupta

A Syrian university student-turned-rebel makes a victory sign from his post in an ancient building located just 50 metres from the base of Aleppo's citadel in northern Syria in November 2012.

An Afghan soldier stands on a hillside above Nangalam village in June 2012 in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan.

Rubble litters the street in the main souk or market area of Maraat al-Numan on November 17, 2012.

A father and his children watch an Afghan patrol go past on June 28, 2012 in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan.

An Afghan soldier runs over an exposed bridge during a patrol on June 22, 2012 in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan.

Afghan soldiers travel in an open-topped Humvee during a vehicle patrol on June 28, 2012 in the Pech Valley, Afghanistan.

The rubble of a mosque destroyed during fighting between rebel forces and pro-Syrian government troops is seen in Maaret Al-Numan, in November 2012.

Abu Hamed (R), who looks after over a dozen shops to make sure they are not looted, walks past destruction in the Bab-al-Nasr neighbourhood of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in November 2012.

Syrian opposition fighter, Bazel Araj, sleeps next to his gun in the northern city of Aleppo in November 2012.

A rebel fighter throws a grenade towards a Syrian government forces position down an alleyway in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo in November 2012.

All photographs John Cantlie/Getty Images