BBC reported to have paid £400,000 to Jewish filmmaker Lucie Kon after antisemitism complaints

Right · 2The BBC has reportedly paid £400,000 to Lucie Kon, a Jewish documentary maker who says she was bullied out of the broadcaster and was a victim of antisemitism. 1 2 Right · 2Kon began unfair dismissal proceedings, and the BBC paid the sum without admitting liability. Both outlets say the money was funded at least in part by the licence fee. 1 2 Right · 2Kon, who told The Telegraph about her experience, says colleagues told her after the 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks that Zionists like her were "evil". She also says they told her that if she called Hamas terrorists she should "call Israel terrorists, too", and that she should consider what drove Hamas. 1 2

Right · 1She also says colleagues told her that a programme about the Nova music festival attack should "contextualise" it. According to the Daily Mail, they also called it "disgusting" that Rishi Sunak visited a Jewish school. 1 Right · 1GB News reports that Kon pitched a documentary on the attacks but was told not to oversee it because, as a Jew, she was "too partial". It adds that her religion had not been an issue in her first 22 years at the BBC. 2 Right · 2After she made a formal complaint, Kon says the BBC told her to stay at home and sidelined her before she lost her job. GB News adds that an internal BBC investigation did not uphold her antisemitism grievances. It also says the BBC restructured after her complaints, her role was made redundant, and she was not hired for the similar post that replaced it. 1 2

Right · 2Kon worked on programmes including Panorama and BBC Breakfast. GB News says she was executive producer of the Oscar-winning Mr Nobody Against Putin and the Emmy-winning We Will Dance Again. 2 1 Right · 2Kon said: "I think I made too much noise about being a Jew inside the BBC... I was open about being a Zionist... And I lost my job as a result." She says other Jewish staff continue to struggle. 1 2 Right · 1The Daily Mail says the BBC has issued no formal apology and has not acknowledged that she was a victim of antisemitism. It describes her as the first person the BBC is known to have paid a settlement to over antisemitism. 1

Right · 2A BBC spokesman said: "While we do not comment on individual staffing matters, anti-Semitism in any form is not tolerated at the BBC." The spokesman added that concerns are taken seriously and investigated under BBC policies. 1 2 Right · 2Both outlets place the payout against wider criticism of the BBC under former director-general Tim Davie, who resigned a year ago. The Mail cites a July 2024 letter from more than 200 Jewish staff and contributors asking for an investigation into antisemitism. It says Davie's successor, Matt Brittin, has pledged to eradicate antisemitism, but that Kon told him Jewish staff are still bullied. GB News cites the Bob Vylan broadcast and a Gaza documentary narrated by the son of a Hamas official. 1 2