With NewJeans' Hanni being selected as a reference in the National Assembly audit on workplace harassment, NewJeans' mothers have expressed concerns about HYBE's inadequate investigation, including suspicions of surveillance videos being concealed by the company.
On October 6, the mothers of NewJeans' members spoke with Ilgan Sports in an interview, stating that ADOR CEO Kim Joo Young claimed that the surveillance footage of Hanni being bullied had disappeared.
NewJeans members' mother expressed confusion and questioned, "How can the footage showing Hanni greeting the other group members remain, but the footage that might have captured the problematic 'ignore her' moment be deleted?"
Previously, Hanni shocked fans when she revealed that while waiting in a hallway at HYBE’s building, she greeted another artist, but when she reencountered them, their manager told the other artist’s team, "Ignore her." Feeling wronged by the situation, Hanni reportedly brought the matter to the attention of ADOR’s new CEO, Kim Joo Young, but the complaint went unheard. This led the National Assembly's Environment and Labor Committee to select Kim Jooyoung, CEO of ADOR and HYBE's Chief Human Resources Officer, as a witness, with Hanni being chosen as a reference.
One NewJeans member's mother, A, expressed, “Hanni's mother first mentioned this issue to the other mothers around the end of May, expressing how upset she was after hearing this from her child, wondering how such a thing could happen and worrying about the future.”
She added, "Back in May to June, tensions were high between HYBE and former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin. During that time, ADOR’s board was also completely changed. Min Hee Jin, despite being isolated within the board and facing issues with other labels, strongly protested. We raised concerns with Kim Jooyoung, who was newly appointed as the chairman of ADOR’s board, requesting the prevention of a recurrence. But they dragged out the process, only to eventually return with a claim that the crucial footage was erased."
The mother further explained, "It’s already been four months since the incident. We raised concerns in June, but they showed no sign of resolution until they finally decided to check the CCTV. I was already skeptical, as they said CCTV doesn’t capture sound. I was wondering why they are making things so difficult and dragging out the process when they can just talk with Hanni and the individual in question. But we wanted to check the surveillance footage so we waited. But they eventually said the footage in question didn’t exist.”
Another mother, B, expressed frustration, “There were numerous strange things. We raised the issue immediately after the incident, with email records to prove it. Yet they responded that CCTV footage is deleted after 30 days. When we asked for it to be restored, they claimed it was technically impossible.”
She added, “What’s absurd is that not all footage from the incident date was missing. They showed us an 8-second clip of Hanni greeting another artist but claimed that the crucial footage from the same timeframe, involving the artist and manager, was deleted. Why would they only keep the part that doesn’t cause a problem? It felt like they were treating us like fools.”
Mother B explained, "When we asked why only that part of the footage was deleted, they said the person responsible had already left the company, so they didn’t know why it was erased. The security team blamed a superior, and the superior blamed the person who had resigned. It was a mess.”
She added, “On the 23rd of last month, CEO Kim Joo Young asked to meet with the NewJeans members alone, but we were too worried to send our children by themselves, so we went with them. At that meeting, we raised the issue again.”
She further explained, "CEO Kim Joo Young said, ‘CCTV footage might not have been saved because there’s no sound, and it’s hard for the security team to determine specific moments.’ But we told him, ‘Even without sound, you can tell what’s happening through the atmosphere and gestures.’ We also requested to view the entire footage from that date, but they said they had reviewed all footage from a month before. I found that answer baffling, as we had provided them with the exact date. Why would they review footage from unrelated dates?"
She continued, “When we asked for documentation on what the ADOR board had requested, they told us they couldn’t share work details, and it might have been communicated over the phone. HYBE claims to be a large company, but we couldn’t believe they wouldn’t document such important requests.”
Mother A stated, “When they showed us the Slack messages regarding the search for the footage, we found it strange that they had ADOR ask Belift Lab for help locating the footage. Shouldn’t HYBE, as the parent company, remain neutral and conduct the investigation itself? It was alarming.”
She continued, "ADOR should have directly requested the security team to find the CCTV footage, or HYBE’s internal workplace harassment department should have done so. Why did the ADOR board ask Belift Lab to search for it? This raised even more suspicion." She further explained, "Moreover, in the Slack conversation between Belift Lab and the security team, when the security officer said, 'We found the footage of the greeting and passing by,' Belift Lab responded with, 'That's a relief.' I couldn’t understand the intention behind showing us that conversation."
The mother added, “Asking Belift Lab to find the footage is like asking the perpetrator to search for evidence. They claimed the crucial footage was deleted and said forensic recovery wasn’t possible due to technical limitations. How can we trust this process?”
Mother A further added, "At the meeting on September 23, Hanni reportedly told CEO Kim Joo Young that when she visited the security office to verify the CCTV footage, the security personnel couldn’t meet her gaze and their hands were shaking. Kim Joo Young responded, 'Well, I’m looking at you straight, aren’t I?' leaving Hanni bewildered."
She continued, "CEO Kim Jooyoung had previously told Hanni, 'You should have reported this earlier; the footage was already deleted after a month.' But Hanni had clearly spoken up early on, and we also raised the issue immediately. Despite that, we got such a response, so Hanni must have thought, 'Are they saying I did something wrong?' The mothers were outraged, asking, 'How could Hanni have known about such a regulation? Also, didn’t we raise the issue right after the incident and well before a month had passed?'"
She also added, "During the meeting on the 23rd, CEO Kim Joo Young suddenly started crying in front of the NewJeans members while speaking. It was so unexpected and made us feel uncomfortable. These members don’t have much social experience, and for the CEO, someone they aren’t even that close with yet, to display such emotional behavior during a discussion about serious issues made us worry that it might cause the kids to feel guilty. And this was supposed to be a conversation about the harm they had experienced. One of the members even cried, asking, 'Why are you making us out to be the bad guys?' So the mothers told them, 'You're at the age where you should be going to school, and we're sorry you have to go through this.'"
Mother B said, “During the meeting, we raised concerns about videos from the NewJeans members' trainee days being leaked to an online media outlet without permission. Two days later, CEO Kim Joo Young responded by saying that she was aware that (NewJeans) fans had filed a criminal complaint against the media outlet and Source Music, and that we could consider waiting for the outcome of that case.”
She continued, "In the explanation email we received from CEO Kim Joo Young, it said that while the NewJeans members could file a civil lawsuit against the media outlet for infringing on their portrait rights, such legal action against a media company might be negatively perceived. It also mentioned concerns about winning the case due to a lack of concrete evidence of the leak. The email also noted that ADOR had sent an official letter to Source Music and the media outlet in August but had received no response."
She elaborated, "The email further stated that since there are no criminal penalties for portrait rights infringement and if Source Music were sued but found not guilty, it could be used against us. It mentioned that since fans had already filed a complaint, we could also consider waiting for the results of that. I didn’t understand how they could claim there are no criminal penalties yet suggest waiting for the fans' complaint. Furthermore, even though the email said that if we still wanted to pursue legal action, ADOR would provide the necessary resources for the NewJeans members, it felt like contradictory, nonsensical wordplay."
Finally, the NewJeans members' mothers expressed their concerns, saying, "These kinds of issues usually happen in blind spots where most people don’t notice, so we’re worried that over time, these matters will just be covered up. We are deeply concerned about how our children are living within HYBE because of these suspicions and fears."
They added, "Over the past few months, we’ve raised complaints and had many discussions with the new ADOR management about this and other issues, but none of them have been resolved. We’ve almost given up and resigned ourselves to the situation, and we're even more worried about what lies ahead. The only thing we can hope for now is to hold on to the belief that the truth will eventually win. Falsehoods can't last forever, so even if not immediately, we believe the truth will come to light."
In response to the mothers' concerns regarding the CCTV footage, a HYBE representative stated, "We are thoroughly verifying the facts related to this matter."
SHARE
