Rhodri Talfan Davies met representatives of the staff network on Tuesday after coverage of the case of Lucie Kon, a former commissioning editor for the BBC's Storyville documentary series, who was paid £400,000 by the corporation after her departure. The BBC said its internal processes did not uphold her antisemitism claims but acknowledged "shortcomings, and the personal impact" on her.
Kon said she faced antisemitism after the 7 October 2023 attack on Israel by Hamas. Her case has prompted calls for an independent inquiry from some MPs and former BBC figures, including the former home affairs correspondent Danny Shaw.
While Talfan Davies did not accept that an independent inquiry was needed, he pointed to new staff training on antisemitism and internal attempts to build an inclusive culture inside the BBC. He is understood to have written to some Jewish staff members after media coverage of Kon's case.
Speaking at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch in London, the deputy director general said: "Of course in any large organisation there can be instances of discrimination, which you deal with when they arise, but there is no evidence of any systemic issue within the BBC that would merit anything like that." He added: "I don't believe there is institutional discrimination of any sort in the BBC, but I think as an organisation you always have to look harder and review how you go about identifying issues, and that work is never done."
Kon stated in an interview: "The BBC isn't full of antisemites, but it does have a problem with antisemitism."
Talfan Davies said the BBC had "taken enormous steps" to improve its workplace culture, such as introducing mandatory training and implementing the results of a recent review focused on "calling out bad behaviour". "I don't recognise a description of the BBC as in any way institutionally discriminatory," he said. "But I also understand that the coverage of the last two weeks will have been difficult for our Jewish colleagues within the BBC and we need to talk to them and work with them to support them."
While the BBC has not explained the size of Kon's payout, Talfan Davies said he was unable to comment further for legal reasons, but said: "It didn't relate to findings of antisemitism in the investigation."
The issue has provided an early test for Talfan Davies, who was handed the deputy job to spot the kinds of crises that eventually led to the resignation of the previous director general, Tim Davie. Those crises included several disputes over the BBC's Middle East coverage. The corporation apologised last year after a documentary about children in Gaza failed to disclose that its child narrator was the son of a Hamas official. It was also criticised for dropping another documentary about medics in Gaza after concluding it "risked creating a perception of partiality". The programme was later shown by Channel 4.