BBC Pays £400,000 to Former Storyville Editor Over Antisemitism Claims
The BBC has paid £400,000 (about $534,000) to Lucie Kon, a former commissioning editor at its documentary strand Storyville, after she said she was the victim of antisemitism at the broadcaster, Deadline reported on 26 October.
A commissioning editor is the person who chooses and funds programmes for a strand. Kon held that job for several years before leaving the BBC last year.
The story first surfaced in The Telegraph, which published its report on 25 October under the headline "Revealed: BBC's £400k payout after anti-Semitism claims." The paper described Kon as a Jewish documentary-maker who says she was bullied out of her job. The Times and GB News carried similar accounts of her claims.
Kon told The Telegraph that she was targeted after the 7 October 2023 attacks in Israel. She says she was told that Zionists like her were "evil," and that colleagues victimised her. Those claims, as reported, are her account.
She says she made a formal complaint to BBC management through its grievance and appeals process. According to Deadline, an internal BBC investigation did not uphold that complaint. The payout was agreed despite that finding.
Deadline described the £400,000 as the first payment of its kind from the BBC over antisemitism claims. It also reported that the claims arose while Kon was working at Storyville.
Her time at the strand overlapped with a major award. As Storyville commissioning editor, Kon was one of the executive producers on Mr. Nobody Against Putin, which won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature earlier this year. Deadline noted that connection in its report, and the film's win is separate from the complaint.
For a general viewer, the key point is simple. A public broadcaster has paid a former staff member a sum of money over claims that her own account describes as bullying and discrimination. The claims are Kon's, and the investigation that did not uphold them was internal.
