An Oscar-winning executive producer claims she received a £400,000 payout from the BBC after alleging she faced antisemitic remarks from colleagues at the corporation.
Lucie Kon, who worked as a commissioning editor overseeing several documentaries, including Mr Nobody Against Putin, told The Telegraph, external that BBC colleagues said Zionists like her were “evil” following the 7 October attacks.
Kon’s post was made redundant as part of a BBC restructure. She says the payment she received was for redundancy back pay and settlement for personal injury caused by the process.
The BBC says it did not uphold any of the allegations of antisemitism but accepted there were “shortcomings” in how it treated Kon, which had a “personal impact” on her.
The corporation did not specify what the shortcomings were.
Kon says she raised a number of concerns about how she was treated following the Hamas-led 7 October attacks.
“I became a problem,” she told BBC News.
“I really did feel like I had Jew stamped on my forehead. I became a problem. And anytime I tried to mention anything, it was like, ‘Oh God, there she goes again.’
“I became a proper pain. They didn’t know what else to do with me.”
Kon also claimed she was told by a colleague that “if you want to call Hamas terrorists then you have to call Israel terrorists, too”.
She helped lead a group representing Jewish staff in the corporation and raised issues with the then-director general, Tim Davie.
Kon told The Telegraph that her religion had not been an issue during her many years working for the BBC until the October 7 attacks.
She later told LBC that the BBC was “not institutionally antisemitic”.
The BBC said it was grateful that Kon acknowledged the BBC is not institutionally antisemitic, adding that she was a “valued member of staff with many years of dedicated service” to the corporation.
