Lucie Kon alleges BBC publicity staff declined to promote the 2024 documentary.
We Will Dance Again won an Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary in 2025.
The BBC agreed to a £400,000-plus settlement but did not admit liability.
The BBC has been accused of refusing to promote We Will Dance Again, an Emmy-winning documentary about the Hamas-led attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Lucie Kon, the film’s executive producer and a former BBC journalist, alleged that the broadcaster’s in-house publicity team declined to support its premiere because of the subject matter. The BBC has disputed her account of the decision, according to The Telegraph.
Why did BBC publicity staff refuse to promote the film?
Released in 2024, Surviving October 7th: We Will Dance Again documents the attack on the Nova music festival in southern Israel, where hundreds of people were killed and others were kidnapped. The documentary won the Emmy for Outstanding Current Affairs Documentary in 2025.
Kon said that the BBC publicity team described the film as “too political” and later said they were too busy to promote it. She alleged that the team’s refusal left her having to hire a freelance publicist to organise the premiere, which included a question-and-answer session with survivors.
“There was nothing political about that film,” Kon said.
The BBC offered a different explanation. A source told The Telegraph that the decision was not politically motivated and that managers had allowed staff to step back because the footage was “harrowing”. The source also said the BBC sometimes used external publicists.
Lucie Kon’s allegations of antisemitism at the BBC
Kon, who worked at the broadcaster for more than two decades, said she experienced a change in how colleagues treated her after the October 7 attacks. She alleged that her Jewish identity was used to question her impartiality when she proposed the documentary.
“I went from a BBC journalist who happened to be Jewish to a Jewish journalist at the BBC. It was like having Jew stamped on my forehead,” she said.
Kon filed a formal grievance in January 2024, but said her complaint and a subsequent appeal were rejected. She was later made redundant and pursued legal action over alleged harassment and victimisation.
BBC paid Kon more than £400,000
The BBC later agreed to pay Kon more than £400,000 in an out-of-court settlement. The payment followed her allegations of antisemitism and workplace mistreatment. The dispute has raised questions about how the broadcaster handled both her complaint and the publicity arrangements for a documentary it had commissioned.
