Daphne Eviatar

The BBC has agreed to pay £400,000 to an award-winning Jewish documentary-maker who alleged she was subjected to antisemitism and pushed out of the corporation after October 7. Lucie Kon, 57, spent 22 years at the BBC and worked on programmes including Panorama, Today, BBC Breakfast and Storyville. Films she commissioned or helped produce won an Oscar, Emmy and Bafta. Kon says her treatment changed dramatically after the Hamas attacks. She alleges colleagues described Zionists like her as “evil”, argued that Israel should be called terrorist if Hamas was, and told her to consider what had driven Hamas to carry out the massacre. When she proposed a documentary about October 7, Kon says she was told she was “too partial” to oversee it because she was Jewish. She subsequently filed a formal grievance, but a BBC investigation rejected her complaint. Kon says she was then kept away from work for months. During a restructuring, her position was made redundant and she failed to secure the similar role replacing it. She launched unfair-dismissal proceedings. The BBC has now agreed substantial compensation, reported as £400,000, without admitting liability or accepting that Kon suffered antisemitism. Kon says Jewish employees still at the corporation continue to face hostility and feel unable to identify openly as Jewish or Zionist.