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Posted by Germaine-Jay Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Pledis Entertainment reveals final statement on Seventeen Mingyu's bullying allegations

AKP STAFF

Pledis Entertainment has revealed the label's final statement on Seventeen Mingyu's bullying allegations.

On April 6, Pledis Entertainment confirmed Mingyu's bullying allegations have been cleared up, and he'll be returning to his usual activities. The label released the following statement:

"Hello.
This is Pledis Entertainment.

We would like to provide our conclusive statement on the issue regarding Seventeen member Mingyu during his time in school.

During this entire process, we made sure that all of our actions were governed by a principle of careful verification of all facts while ensuring that no one involved experienced any unfairness or maltreatment. We communicated directly with the individuals who wrote postings regarding the artist to examine the facts, and we have issued statements correcting claims that were untrue or based on misunderstandings.

After issuing our previous statement, we were able to contact the person referred to as 'B' through the individual who posted about events that happened in middle school, and examined and verified the facts over a period of more than three weeks. While memories of events that transpired ten years ago inevitably differed, we worked hard to determine the facts that everyone could agree upon as truths.

The artist wished to talk to the individual involved either personally or over the phone, but we respected the person’s wishes not to be contacted by the artist and instead relayed his message. During the course of our conversation, we tried to go beyond discussing evidence or debating claims from third parties and instead worked on building an understanding and rapport. The artist explained that in middle school when friends around him were carrying on or joking he too laughed without particular thought. The artist asked the company to relay his message that while he had no recollection of the events told by the person involved or intended any mistreatment, if there was any action that was taken that caused distress then he was sincerely sorry. The person involved also said that he did not wish the artist to bear undue responsibility for events that happened in the past.

Both the individual and the artist do not wish to cause each other any more harm due to this issue. We would like to ask you to avoid unnecessary conjecture that may cause more distress to the person involved in this issue.

Contacting people from postings online and retracing the memories of many individuals to verify the facts of the issue required considerable time and effort. Due to the gravity of the issue, we approached each step with the utmost care. Please understand that some time was therefore needed before we could issue this final statement."

Mingyu himself also said:

"I'm sorry to have made you worry. This experience has been trying for me as well. However, I also learned that regardless of my thoughts or my recollection of past events, it was still possible to cause distress to a person through unintended actions. It was also a chance to reflect on how I should conduct myself.

It is love from you, all fans, that enables me to do what I do, and I realized once again that I must behave with maturity to return the positive energy that I’ve received from you. I will ensure that I behave in the best way possible to make sure I can be by your side as long as I can."

As previously reported, Mingyu was accused of bullying, which Pledis Entertainment quickly denied. Though he did settle with one of the accuses, an anonymous accuser also apologized. His past collage artwork also stirred up controversy due to explicit content.

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  1. Seventeen
  2. Mingyu
  3. PLEDIS ENTERTAINMENT
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Kiseudei
Kiseudei105 pts Tuesday, April 6, 2021 2
Tuesday, April 6, 2021

It was over 10 years ago, when he was a literal teenager. An age group notorious for being terrible people and most of us probably were as well. It's called growing up. Your opinions, personality, and everything encompassing one's self change as you grow up - or at least, they should. If they don't, there's something wrong there.

Now, if he was STILL that person today it would be a different story. Is there evidence of that? Not that I can see and if there are any NEW accounts of terrible behavior, they should come out. But until that happens, I don't see the point in assuming he is the same little brat he was TEN YEARS AGO.

27 (+39 / -12)
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Secretninja312
Secretninja3127,645 pts Tuesday, April 6, 2021 0
Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Honestly, a lot these bullying/school violence accusations just sound like individuals who are just looking for attention or some sort of payout. I do think some of these have some level of truth to them but are HIGHLY exaggerated from the initial incident to make the situation sound a lot worse than what actually happened. These accusers are riding on the idea that since it happened so long ago, it's hard to prove it didn't happen and people would side with them as the "victim" than with the celebrity that's being accused, and unfortunately, that seems to be working for the most part.


That being said, I will say, for the crap company Pledis is accused of being and their past history of poor management, I think they handled this situation very well. They didn't jump to deny accusations or immediately drop Mingyu. Quietly worked behind the scenes with Mingyu and the accusers before making a statement, and explaining things thoroughly as they resolved each one.

Now can we please put an end to all these "bullying" accusations? Most of these types of accusations aren't genuine bullying and most happened well over 10 years ago, move on with life. If you're sitting behind a computer ripping apart these celebs and accusing them of being a bully based on these accusations, you're no better than what these celebs are being accused of. You're not making the world a better place by talking trash and canceling celebs, just spreading more toxic waste.

21 (+29 / -8)
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