Oscar-winning producer Lucie Kon received a £400,000 settlement from the BBC after she threatened to take the corporation to an employment tribunal over alleged racial and religious discrimination, it has emerged.
Kon, who previously worked as executive producer of the BBC’s Storyville and Panorama, claimed she was “forced out” of the broadcaster because she challenged what she saw as its culture of antisemitism.
The acclaimed documentarian, who last year won an Emmy for her October 7 film We Will Dance Again and this year claimed an Oscar Mr Nobody Against Putin, told the Telegraph that the environment at the corporation had been hostile since the outbreak of the war in Israel.
After raising her concerns with senior managers and eventually with then-Director-General Tim Davie, she was made redundant in April, 19 days after taking home her Oscar.
Speaking of her last few years at the broadcaster, she said: “I went from a BBC journalist who happened to be Jewish to a Jewish journalist at the BBC. It was like having Jew stamped on my forehead...
“The BBC isn’t full of antisemitism, but it does have a problem with antisemitism. I never for one minute imagined that there would come a day when, if I said to someone I was a Zionist, that would be used against me, or that it would mean anyone would think I was part of a death cult.”
Discussing some examples of this “problem,” she recounted a conversation with a colleague shortly after October 7, saying: “I said Hamas were evil and the reply I got was, ‘so are Zionists.’ I was really shocked.”
On another occasion, when former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak visited a Jewish school, Kon recalled: “A colleague said, ‘I think it’s disgusting that he’s taking sides’. I was like, ‘what are you talking about? He’s not taking sides, he’s just saying he’s going to protect citizens of this country’.”
Separately, Kon said a colleague told her to “think about what drove Hamas to do what they did”.
Instead of ignoring what was happening, Kon decided to take it up with managers, but claimed that they told her she was being overly sensitive and offered her therapy.
As part of a support group for Jewish people at the BBC, she also had a meeting with Davie, where the group suggested the BBC refer to October 7 as a terrorist attack. The BBC refused, citing its longstanding position that it does not generally use the term “terrorist” without attribution.
Kon said that at the time, a colleague said to her: “If you want to call Hamas terrorists, you have to say that Israel is a terrorist state.”
In January 2024, Kon raised a formal grievance on the advice of one senior manager. “I knew I was taking a risk at that moment - and everything changed, my life, my career, from then on,” she recalled.
After a five-month internal investigation, she was told the grievance had not been upheld. She lodged an appeal, but it was unsuccessful.
The stress led to health problems, and she was subsequently signed off sick but, just before she left, she claimed she was called in for a meeting with HR, telling her that, due to a restructuring, her job was at risk. She was ultimately let go in April.
“The BBC dumped me, isolated me and sent me round the twist... They broke me.”
The BBC also reportedly removed her name from the credits of Mr Nobody Against Putin – a film she had spent three years working on.
“I had gone from being a respected, well-liked journalist, commissioner and executive producer to being a Jew at the BBC,” Kon said. “I had gone from feeling proud to being ashamed.
“I was undermined, I was pushed into a corner. I felt like the life was sucked out of me.”
However, the corporation then agreed to pay her more than £400,000 in compensation rather than fight an employment tribunal at which she planned to allege racial and religious discrimination, victimisation, harassment and unfair dismissal.
She also asked for a formal apology and a meeting with new Director-General Matt Brittin, but was denied both of these.
A BBC spokesman told the Telegraph: “While we do not comment on individual staffing matters, antisemitism in any form is not tolerated at the BBC.
“If allegations or concerns are raised, they are taken seriously and investigated in accordance with our policies. We have robust procedures in place to deal with any behaviour that is contrary to our values.”
The JC has contacted the BBC for further comment.
To get more news, click here to sign up for our free daily newsletter.