Bizarre Reporting Practices Regarding ‘Hanni’s Leniency for Hate Commenters’

Below is a list of articles with the phrase “escaped the risk of getting a criminal record” in the headline or body text.

🔗 [Exclusive] Hate commenter who wrote “Does crying like that get you any help?” to NewJeans’ Hanni… escaped the risk of getting a criminal record [World &] – Herald Economy, reporter An Se-yeon
🔗 “Does crying like that get you any help?”… Hate commenter targeting NewJeans’ Hanni escaped the risk of getting a criminal record after settlement – Seoul Economy, reporter Kang Ji-won
🔗 “Does crying like that get you any help?” Why NewJeans’ Hanni’s hate commenter avoided a criminal record – Korea Economic Daily, reporter Kim So-yeon

Headlines like these appear to be written from the perpetrator’s perspective rather than the victim’s. The perpetrator who clearly committed wrongdoing is the “hate commenter,” and the victim who clearly suffered harm as a result is “Hanni.” Nevertheless, using expressions like “escaped the risk of getting a criminal record” for the perpetrator is a highly bizarre framing that highlights a sense of relief from the perpetrator’s perspective, as if to say “what a relief” or “dodged a bullet.”

The core of the reported incident is the hate commenter’s act of insult and the subsequent legal proceedings. Yet these and other media outlets have engaged in behavior that directly quotes the provocative content of the hateful comments in their headlines and body text to attract clicks, regardless of the essence of the case. The quoted hateful comments are not even essential to conveying the key fact that “a hate commenter indicted for insult charges had their case dismissed after reaching a settlement.” On the contrary, this risks constituting secondary harm to Hanni.