Ex-BBC journalist hits out at broadcaster over Shamima Begum

A former BBC journalist has asked if Shamima Begum would have been treated differently by the media if she wasn't Muslim. Mishal Husain raised concerns about how Muslims are portrayed during a lecture at the University of Oxford entitled "Empire, Identity and the Search for Reason".

She reportedly accused her former employer and Sky of a lack of duty of care towards Begum, who at the age of 15 left Britain for Syria with two friends. She went on to marry an IS terrorist and have three children, who all died. Ms Begum was stripped of her citizenship after she was found in a refugee camp in 2019.

Ms Husain is reported by The Times as telling her audience of comments made by Sir Alan Moses, a former chair of the press regulator IPSO.

Sir Alan said in 2019 that he suspected there were times Muslims were written about in newspapers in a way Catholics or Jews wouldn't be.

The former Today presenter went on to say: "Would [Begum] have been perceived exactly the same way if she had had a different name - had not been Muslim?"

When Ms Begum was located by The Times in 2019, Ms Husain said the media was "scrambling" to interview her on camera and the then 19-year-old's claim she wasn't moved by the sight of a severed head in a bin prompted "widespread revulsion".

Ms Husain accused broadcasters of ignoring the fact Ms Begum was "vulnerable" after giving birth days after the first interview.

She said one broadcaster reported tracking down "the IS bride" just hours after she gave birth and another recorded an interview when Ms Begum's son was only three days old.

The journalist said when she watched those interviews she saw something which appeared to go entirely unnoticed in editorial decision-making or was regarded as unimportant. Ms Husain said: "I saw a teenage mother, only just post-partum."

She reportedly told the audience that she would have struggled to interview someone after giving birth to each of her own three children despite their being delivered in a hospital surrounded by family.

The media was also accused by Ms Husain of failing to explain how Ms Begum was radicalised as a child.

She said: "It was rare to see any focus in reporting of how she was under 16, legally a child, when she made the worst decision of her life."

The BBC has been approached for comment. A source told the Express that Sky News takes its duty of care towards contributors seriously and in line with Ofcom regulations.