Producer says BBC paid her £400,000 after antisemitism complaint

Lucie Kon, a former BBC documentary commissioning editor, says she received a £400,000 payment after raising concerns about antisemitism at work and later being made redundant. She says the money covered redundancy back pay and a settlement for personal injury caused by the process. The payment does not establish that her allegations of antisemitism were upheld: the BBC says its procedures upheld none of them.

Kon told LBC that, after the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023, she described Hamas as “evil” and a colleague replied: “So are the Zionists.” She also says she was initially told she could not oversee a documentary about the attack on the Nova music festival because she was Jewish and would struggle to be impartial.

Kon worked on BBC documentaries including the Oscar-winning *Mr Nobody Against Putin*. She told the Press Association that her concerns became a formal grievance in January 2024. She was placed at risk of redundancy a year later and lost her job in April 2026. She brought unfair dismissal proceedings, which ended in a settlement.

The BBC had announced plans to reduce annual commissions for its Storyville documentary strand by 20%. A restructuring adopted in July 2025 closed existing roles on the team. That change provides context for Kon’s redundancy but does not settle her account of how colleagues treated her.

Kon told LBC that some parts of her grievance were upheld, though most were not. The BBC says none of her antisemitism allegations was upheld, but acknowledges unspecified “shortcomings” and their personal impact on her. Kon says she does not believe the BBC is institutionally antisemitic, although she thinks it has a problem with “groupthink”.

The Independent, carrying Press Association reporting, puts the payment at more than £400,000. The BBC has not specified which shortcomings it acknowledged.