BBC pays Jewish filmmaker £400k after antisemitism complaints

A Jewish filmmaker has received a £400,000 settlement from the BBC after alleging she faced antisemitic remarks and was pushed out of the broadcaster following the 7 October Hamas attacks.

Lucie Kon, 57, who spent more than two decades at the corporation, claimed colleagues described Zionists as “evil” and questioned her impartiality because she was Jewish.

The award-winning documentary producer said her working environment changed dramatically after the attacks on Israel, despite her Jewish identity never previously being an issue during her career at the BBC.

“It was like having Jew stamped on my forehead,” she told The Telegraph.

Kon alleged that a colleague told her that if Hamas were described as terrorists, Israel should be called terrorists too, and urged her to “think about what drove Hamas to do what they did”.

She also claimed her Jewish identity was used to question whether she could oversee a documentary about the Nova music festival massacre, where hundreds of people were murdered by Hamas terrorists.

According to Kon, colleagues wanted the programme to “contextualise” the attacks, while concerns were raised about whether she could approach the subject impartially.

In another alleged incident, a colleague described then-prime minister Rishi Sunak’s visit to a Jewish school following the attacks as “disgusting”.

Kon said she raised concerns internally but was subsequently excluded from meetings and prevented from attending film festivals, leaving her increasingly unable to carry out her work.

Kon’s name was also moved from the prominent end-board credits of the Oscar-winning documentary Mr Nobody Against Putin into the scrolling credits. According to Kon, restoring her original credit was subsequently agreed as part of the settlement.

“I think I became a problem. I think I made too much noise about being a Jew inside the BBC,” she told The Telegraph.

“I stood up for my community. I was open about being a Zionist.”

Kon pursued a formal grievance and later brought employment tribunal proceedings against the broadcaster, which agreed to settle the dispute without admitting liability.

Jewish News understands that some of Kon’s formal grievances had been upheld, although the BBC did not uphold her allegations of antisemitism.

She also clarified that most of the £400,000 settlement related to personal injury.

Kon’s career at the BBC included commissioning and executive producing Mr Nobody Against Putin, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature earlier this year, and We Will Dance Again, an Emmy-winning documentary about the Nova massacre.

Despite her professional success, she claimed the dispute had taken a serious toll on her wellbeing and said the broadcaster declined to apologise as part of the settlement.

Her employment ended in April 2026, shortly after Mr Nobody Against Putin won its Oscar.

The case comes amid wider concerns about antisemitism within the BBC. In 2024, more than 200 Jewish staff, contractors and contributors called for an investigation into alleged antisemitism and bias at the broadcaster.

A BBC spokesperson previously told The Telegraph: “While we do not comment on individual staffing matters, antisemitism in any form is not tolerated at the BBC.

“If any 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 broadcaster said Kon’s antisemitism allegations had been investigated and not upheld. It maintained that it had given her duty of care the utmost priority throughout.

It also said her departure followed a departmental restructuring.

Jewish News has contacted the BBC for further comment.