The National Assembly considered HYBE’s first statement completely inappropriate.
On October 24, 2024 (KST), MOVESis COO and Belift Laboratory CEO Kim Tae Ho was questioned during the audit of the South Korean National Assembly, where some of the most shocking revelations about HYBE’s business operations were made.
Internal documents leaked from HYBE lead to suspicion that they sabotaged RIIZE
Member of the National Assembly Min Hyung Bae he was merciless in his questions, as Kim Tae Ho struggled to provide clear answers.
“Didn’t President Bang Si-hyuk tell you to write this and report it to the editor-in-chief?”
“…Well, that’s not my jurisdiction..”
“So I called Bang Si-hyuk, but he came out instead. But what if you say it like that?” pic.twitter.com/LMli0PMzwr
— mhj Archive (@Daepunimarchive) October 24, 2024
Min Hyung Bae: It’s not true that Bang Si Hyuk asked [Kang Myung Seo, the editor-in-chief of Weverse Magazine] write and present this report?
Kim Tae Ho: It’s hard for me to say because it’s not within the scope of my job…
Min Hyung Bae: That’s why we asked Bang Si Hyuk to participate today. Didn’t you come to this audit on his behalf? Yet you can’t answer these questions clearly?
But it was HYBE’s now-deleted official statement that really infuriated Min Hyung Bae and the others. Ministry of Sport, Culture and Tourism. In the statement, released in the middle of the audit, HYBE threatened to do so “Make anyone [publicized the documents] takes full responsibility.”
This is the official statement from HYBE. On October 24, the company documents used for monitoring during the audit of the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Tourism were made public, provoking various reactions from fandoms and industries, as well as articles in the press.
The contents (direction and industry issues) were only shared with a small portion of internal staff for reference and merely reflected reactions from social media platforms and online communities at face value and do not constitute the official position of HYBE.
The report in question also contains positive reviews from fans and things that people in the entertainment industry should take note of.
The provocative parts of the report were carefully selected and leaked to the outside to make it appear that HYBE had criticized other artists in our documents. We will ensure that whoever conducted this activity takes full responsibility.
— MOVEMENTS
When the National Assembly was informed of the statement, Kim Tae Ho was reprimanded on behalf of HYBE “respond inappropriately”. Member of the National Assembly jeon jae soohead of the Committee on Culture, Sport and Tourism which conducted the audit, openly criticized HYBE “not taking the National Assembly seriously”.
While inspecting the National Assembly there is no need to be rude.
The Deputy Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism was furious with Hive for issuing an official statement saying that it would hold itself responsible to the end for the “forces” that leaked it, as if Hive had created material of criticizes artists simply by putting together provocative content. Oh, the opening is awesome haha.
“Is the National Assembly that easy??” LOL pic.twitter.com/DKZaIz0rjZ— Fy (@roro95) October 24, 2024
jeon jae soo: This audit of the National Assembly is conducted legally under the South Korean Constitution. You have come here as a witness and have ample opportunity to speak. Therefore, it is completely inappropriate for the company to respond in this way to questions and answers between the committee members and the witness while the audit is ongoing. As the head of the commission, I must express how inappropriate this was and that you should apologize. How can HYBE make such a statement while the audit is ongoing?
Kim Tae Ho: I’m terribly sorry, but I haven’t been able to see the above statement yet.
jeon jae soo: Member Min Hyung Bae read it to you.
Kim Tae Ho: Was that the entire statement? I have no information on this, so…
jeon jae soo: It doesn’t matter whether that was the entire statement or not. You have been chosen as a witness by the commission and the commission is currently engaged in a question and answer session. For the company to make a statement in any way while the audit is underway makes the audit appear meaningless and undermines the authority of the National Assembly. Is it acceptable? Does HYBE not take the National Assembly seriously?
Kim Tae Ho was then asked to stay during the audit to have another chance to talk about the statement itself (decided by a unanimous vote of both political parties). It was then that Kim Tae Ho explained that this was in response to the rapid growth of online reaction, but admitted that HYBE was wrong to make such a statement during the audit.
We released the statement because, during today’s National Assembly review, there were numerous questions from the media about our position on the issues that concern us, to the point that it was difficult to answer each one individually.
Additionally, we assessed that content not addressed in the National Assembly audit, as well as content shown obfuscated during the audit, was being distorted and disseminated online at a significant rate.
Therefore, we decided to publish the statement to promptly respond to media inquiries and prevent the amplification of misinformation.
As I said before, we certainly meant no disrespect to the National Assembly. We recognize that issuing the statement during the National Assembly audit was a clear mistake on our part.
—Kim Tae Ho
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