HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang Posts Apology; Scapegoating Controversy
[HYBE] We apologize regarding the monitoring documents.
As CEO of HYBE, I offer my apology regarding the HYBE monitoring documents.
I bow my head in apology to artists, industry professionals, and fans regarding our company’s monitoring documents that were pointed out during the National Assembly Culture, Sports and Tourism Committee audit on October 24.
These documents were created in the process of retrospectively compiling various reactions and opinions on industry trends and issues. They were shared only with select members of leadership for the purpose of understanding market and artist fan sentiment, but the content of these documents was highly inappropriate. On behalf of the company, I acknowledge full responsibility for the fact that provocative and explicit expressions targeting K-pop artists were included as-is, that the writer’s personal views and evaluations were added, and that this content was documented. In particular, I am deeply sorry and devastated by the situation where innocent artists and employees are suffering misunderstanding and harm due to the addition of completely false allegations of counter-viral marketing.
I formally and respectfully apologize to external artists who have been harmed and hurt by being mentioned in these documents. We are contacting each agency separately to apologize directly. We are also conveying our sincere official apology to all artists of HYBE Music Group who are receiving criticism because of the company.
I acknowledge that the leadership who received these documents lacked awareness of the problem, and as CEO, I have immediately ordered the cessation of creating such monitoring documents. I promise to establish guidelines and strengthen internal controls to ensure that such issues never occur again.
Once again, I apologize to artists and industry professionals who have been hurt by this incident, fans, and everyone who loves and supports K-pop. As the representative of the company, through deep reflection and introspection, I will thoroughly improve past wrongdoings and do my utmost for the healthy development of the K-pop industry by prioritizing the rights and interests of all K-pop artists and respect for fans.
Thank you. HYBE CEO Lee Jae-sang
As HYBE came under fire for creating industry trend reports known as the ‘HYBE internal reports’ containing provocative appearance evaluations of domestic idol group members, the author of these reports was suspended from their position on October 29.
According to the music industry, HYBE suspended Mr. Kang, who is known to have written reports titled ‘Weekly Music Industry Report,’ from his position this morning and assigned him to the company’s People Team. This appears to be a measure holding him accountable for the controversy that grew over the provocative and dehumanizing content.
However, criticism has emerged calling this a ‘scapegoating’ measure. While the person who wrote the controversial documents does bear primary responsibility, there is no way Mr. Kang could have created these reports based on his own unilateral decision. Those higher up who were involved in the creation of these reports also cannot escape responsibility for this controversy.