NewJeans Faces Backlash Over Contract Dispute and Media Statements

It's the 'Time to take responsibility' of the group NewJeans.

NewJeans declared a suspension of activities in protest of the court's citation of Ador's injunction, defining themselves as `victims' and `sacrifice' through foreign media play. But the public's response is frosty. According to the court's judgment, opinions are continuing to fulfill the contract and stop playing any more victim cosplay and face changing.

"The decisions and choices we have made over the past year have all been agreed upon by all five," NewJeans told BBC News Korea on the 26th. If even one doesn't want to, we say we won't. Through this situation in 2024, I tried to hide everything quietly, but it came to the point where I felt like it was going to explode," he said, explaining why he chose the legal dispute.

In addition, the court's decision to cite the provisional injunction application was "all shocked." Some people may think that we are famous and in a position to do whatever we want to say, but we've barely spoken out about the absurdity we've experienced, but it's not flowing in our favor. There may be situations where you can no longer be active. That's the thing I want to avoid the most."

NewJeans told U.S. Time shortly after the court ruling that he was disappointed with the court ruling. Maybe this is the reality of Korea. But change and growth are needed. South Korea seems to be trying to turn us into revolutionaries," he said in an interview, which was embroiled in a `hate controversy.'

NewJeans is appealing to leading foreign media that the situation of not going their way is a chronic problem for the entire K-pop industry and even Korea.

But the public's response is frosty. First of all, there was a reversal revealed during the litigation process.

On the 21st, the Seoul Central District Court's Civil Agreement Department 50 (senior judge Kim Sang-hoon) rejected all of the members' claims that Audor violated the exclusive contract, citing the application for injunction against them, such as preserving agency status and signing advertisements.

There are a total of 11 reasons for termination of exclusive contracts claimed by NewJeans in this lawsuit. Concerns over production vacancies due to the dismissal of Min Hee-jin, former CEO of Hive, Park Ji-won's remarks that he will give the members of NewJeans a long vacation, the dispute between the dolphin mob director Shin Woo-seok and Adore, the Hive Music Report (May 10, 2023) that reads, "'You can throw away NewJeans and make a new edition', Bilibrap's manager's remarks to Hani, the leakage of photos and videos from the members of NewJeans as a trainee, Hive PD's remarks disparaging NewJeans' performance, Hive's remarks on Hive's performance, The retaliatory audit of former CEO Min of Hive and Adore has created negative public opinion about NewJeans, and Hive CEO Lee Jae-sang said, `We are even thinking about flying Min Hee-jin and NewJeans together by undermining the brand value of NewJeans.'

In particular, the members did a live broadcast claiming that it was 'bullying in the workplace' that Hani was told "Ignore you" by the Irish manager, and Hani appeared at the parliamentary audit and shed tears. However, the court did not admit any of these to be true.

Moreover, NewJeans and former representatives Min mentioned Le Seraphim and ILLIT several times, saying they received unfair treatment from Hib. They argued that Hive debuted Le Seraphim before NewJeans, ILLIT plagiarized the concept of NewJeans, and there was even a "Ignore" incident, contrary to their promises. But in an interview with BBC News Korea, Hani said, `To be honest, I don't feel comfortable bringing this up over and over again. It includes stories from other teams and we don't want to have any impact on them. There is no reason or need for that."

Above all, it is hard to say that the success of New Jeans is the power of the members and former CEO Min alone. If Hive hadn't burned the huge amount of KRW 21 billion in the first place, the scale of New Jeans' debut promotion would have been different. Moreover, Newzins received 5 billion won in settlement within a year of its activities. It is a rare VVIP treatment among K-pop idols.

Nevertheless, NewJeans unilaterally declared the termination of the contract and refused to talk to Adore itself. Although the court did not admit all the reasons for termination of the contract, it ignored the court ruling and poured out uncomfortable stories about K-pop, the Korean system and public sentiment to foreign media.

As a result, public opinion is rapidly deteriorating. Netizens say, `They are not victims of Korean society or the K-pop system. Rather, it is more like a beneficiary (@jhh****), 'First anti-Korean idol title won (Wlwimf*****) in Korea (Wlwimf*****),'Times and then the BBC are in power (blakkoonlight***)','Is it all wrong unless it's the outcome they want?' If this is the case, then NewJeanswill be at the national power level (long cloud)','The harassment will be received by ILLIT and Leceraphim because of NewJeans(this*******),' is scary now. It gives me goosebumps that they are pushing only what they want with one victim's cosplay, ignoring social rules, conventional wisdom, and the law.