Director Shin Woo-seok Announces Fact Correction and Banheesoo Channel Restoration Regarding ADOR (CEO Kim ********) Statement on September 9
Honestly, every time I see their statements, it makes my blood boil.
This could all be over if you just admitted your wrongdoing and apologized—so why do you keep changing your story and lying every single time? What about the recordings and emails we have? If you’re so confident you’re in the right, why did you contact someone you labeled as a spreader of false information and try to placate them? You dismissed it when your own employee tried to stop you, and now you’re blaming it on the employee? The management was the one who started all this with threats and coercion—so why are you making the employee a scapegoat? Let me make this clear: there was an agreement for all the content and channels we uploaded. It doesn’t just disappear because the management changed.
Even the director’s cut that ADOR took issue with in their statement—including the ending—was something that all three parties agreed upon at the time, and there was only a request for partial tagline modifications. There is still no problem with uploading the video. Yet ADOR is dragging in third parties for the sake of this dispute and causing them harm. I clearly communicated to ADOR in a separate message that the third party did not wish to be mentioned, but they are still using the third party to distort the situation. The companies that participated in this project must still be suffering because of these petty actions.
And what’s with talking about “a creator’s genuine distress” in an official statement? That’s not what this is. If you deny the existing agreement and immediately threaten someone with billions of won in penalties, even Francis Ngannou would have no choice but to delete the videos. And ADOR notified us to delete immediately—when did they ever ask for evidence? Also, after making an issue out of copyrights and likeness rights existing on non-official accounts, now you’re changing your position to say it was only about the director’s cut? Then are the members appearing in the other videos not NewJeans? If we hadn’t deleted those videos, what would ADOR have said? I can’t believe the attitude of lying so casually even when there’s evidence.
It was a long time ago, but we wanted to make something great and worked on it with genuine affection. I don’t understand why we have to suffer because of internal conflicts within ADOR, but we even gave up our legitimate rights due to their threats and coercion. And yet, according to the statements they’re writing however they please, knowing the public has no way to verify the truth—if the agreement is proven, ADOR automatically loses. I think it’s time to go to court. I’m told it’s an easy game legally. In the end, it seems like what ADOR wants is to buy time and avoid public opinion. Since you didn’t apologize, we will submit or disclose the recordings, emails, and materials we have in sequence as needed, and we will sue CEO Kim Ju-young and Deputy CEO Lee Do-kyung for defamation.
Lastly, the Ban Heesoo channel is currently legally owned by Dolphiners Films. And we intend to look for a way to transfer the channel to the fans. ADOR stated in yesterday’s statement that Dolphiners Films is welcome to operate the Ban Heesoo channel, but this is clearly an empty promise. Just a few days ago, ADOR’s firm position while trying to placate us behind the scenes was that we should at least hand over the Ban Heesoo channel. And according to their stance of not recognizing the existing agreement, the copyrights and likeness rights of the videos will ultimately become an issue. This is nothing but wordplay to deceive the public.
Honestly, I thought this situation would be resolved if I created an exit where I would give up everything and only ask for an apology, but I didn’t expect ADOR’s management—a so-called entertainment company—to make such a judgment even with the public watching. I especially thought they would at least consider the position of the artists they should be protecting and the fans who must be confused, but I was wrong. Still, I don’t want the fans to suffer any more damage, and since ADOR absolutely refuses to take responsibility, I will take responsibility myself and reopen the Ban Heesoo channel. If ADOR wants to sue over this, go ahead.
I’m reopening the Ban Heesoo channel now.
