The BBC appears to have just paid out £400,000 of licence fee payer’s money to avoid an investigation into antisemitism.
Documentary film maker Lucie Kon, whose work has earned the BBC several awards, including most recently an Oscar, claims she was pushed out of her job at the BBC for being an outspoken Jewish woman. Faced with an employment tribunal, the telegraph reports that the BBC has paid out a settlement of £400,000 without accepting any wrongdoing or allegations of antisemitism.
The decision for a large organisation to settle out of court rather than go through the process of having Ms Kon’s allegations investigated is an interesting one. It rather suggests that the BBC wanted this to go away and go away quickly, and that they may not have been entirely sure that the investigation would not have turned up realities they would rather not face.
Obviously, we can’t possibly now what Ms Kon’s tribunal would have found had it gone ahead, but we can perhaps speculate.
We know, for example, that Ms Kon claims to have been told by her colleagues at the famously “impartial” national broadcaster that Zionists – ie people who believe in the continued existence of the state of Israel – were “evil” and that she needed to consider what had driven Hamas to commit the atrocities of October 7th. We also know that after her internal complaints were not upheld, she found herself conveniently being made redundant.
Perhaps the BBC considered it a good use of public money not to have these kinds of allegations explored. Not every licence fee payer will agree with that assessment.
Ms Kon is not the only person to whistle blow about bias at the BBC. Ex Panorama producer Phil Craig made comments last week regarding the insidious “group think” and lack of rigour at the broadcaster, as well as a distinct lack of commitment to the editorial guidelines and to impartiality. Earlier in the year Fran Unsworth, the former director of News and Current Affairs at the BBC made similar allegations about what she called a “mono-perspective” driven by progressive politics which effectively censored dissenting voices on subjects from gender identity to immigration as well as Israel. The BBC’s former Director of Television Danny Cohen has raised similar concerns when he pointed out that when mistakes continually only go one way they are no longer mistakes but institutional bias.
The call is coming from inside the house.
But still the BBC refuses to engage with the rot that is eroding its very purpose and identity. The concept of a national broadcaster that tells the truth without fear or favour and is not in thrall to either a billionaire or corporate owner, or the whims of advertisers and audiences is a good one. It’s a purpose worth protecting. But it seems that the BBC is going to allow itself to be hollowed out before it will take the problem seriously, and who knows If ultimately in can survive.
Against the backdrop of this huge payout to Lucie Kon, the BBC is sending complainers what appears to be a copy and paste text defending Jeremy Bowen, who appeared to accuse Israel of genocide at a talk in Glasgow last week. The BBC claims that the video was edited and “Jeremy is clear” his comments have been taken out of context, but they have not so far committed to any kind of investigation into the incident, instead appearing to simply support the man who has “no regrets” over his disastrous misreporting of the Al- Ahli hospital blast, along with a career of bias against Israel spanning decades.
The BBC is a public service. Licence fee payers do not pay for the personal views of elitist middle-class progressives, or payouts to victims of racist bullying. They pay for a service which provides impartial and accurate news and exists to inform and to educate. How long before they refuse to pay for it anymore.