On October 15, Hanni participated as a reference witness in the audit of the National Assembly of the Economic, Social and Labor Council and organizations affiliated with the Ministry of Employment and Labor. He testified about workplace bullying issues that occurred at HYBE.
Hanni’s decision to participate in the audit was voluntary and he had previously informed fans of his intention to appear before the National Assembly. On October 9, Hanni announced on the NewJeans fan communication platform “Call”, “I decided to go to the National Assembly. I made this decision for myself, for my members and for Bunnies (the NewJeans fandom)”, expressing his strong determination.
Hanni’s presence at the audit was not discussed in advance with ADOR, a label of HYBE. By making this decision public without consulting his agency, Hanni demonstrated his determination, stating: “My manager and the company don’t know this yet, but no matter how much I think about it, I believe participating (in the audit) is the right thing to do.”
NewJeans members are showing their support for Hanni’s participation in the audit. Member Minji changed his status message to Calling To “otter, teddy bear and rabbit emoji with an encouraging message” using the otter emoji that symbolizes Hanni, her teddy bear symbol, and the rabbit emoji that represents their fandom.
Danielle also sent a loving message of support the same morning, saying: “Our amazing Pham Unnie~! You have this!!! Phamting~~!!!!♥♥”
Hanni’s family also supports her decision. His mother stated: “Our family sincerely supports Hanni’s decision to attend the National Assembly and speak out about workplace bullying.”
In addition to Hanni, ADOR’s new CEO, Kim Joo-young, was also supposed to appear as a witness at this audit. This will be his first public appearance since taking over as CEO of ADOR “HYBE-Min Hee-jin Incident”and many are curious to know what he would say.
NewJeans fans are also rallying against HYBE. “Team Bunny” filed a complaint with Seoul Yongsan Police Station against senior officials of HYBE and ADOR on charges of breach of trust and violation of personal data protection laws, demanding a strong response to this situation.
After the hour-long testimony at the National Assembly audit, Hanni shared his feelings with fans. He wrote on Telefonare, “I’m so grateful. Bunnies, you worked so hard, thank you so much. I don’t want to cry, but I can’t stop the tears. I’m so grateful, I really am.
During the audit, Hanni provided detailed explanations about the incident he had spoken about in a YouTube live broadcast on September 11, in which another artist’s manager had said “Ignore her.” He stated, “It wasn’t just that one incident. Since the beginning of our debut, whenever I met certain high-ranking individuals, they never returned my greetings. I understood that in Korean culture, older people tend to appreciate good manners more, so not returning a greeting, regardless of professional hierarchy, I think is disrespectful as a human being.
Hanni also highlighted CEO Kim Joo-young’s lukewarm response to problems she had experienced and witnessed within the company, including attempts to downplay NewJeans’ achievements. In response, Kim explained that she had asked to check the CCTV footage of the incident but was unable to obtain it as the retention period had expired. He added, “As the internal director of ADOR at the time, I believe I took all the measures I could.” Hanni refuted this, saying: “I’m sorry, but I don’t think you did your best.”
Hanni burst into tears during her final statement. He said, “During this experience, I thought a lot about how, even though there may not be laws that can solve all the world’s problems, if we respect each other as human beings, at least bullying and ostracism in the workplace may not occur .” He continued: “I hope that other seniors, colleagues, young people or interns do not have to worry about these problems. I saw that many people cared about us and I am very grateful for that.”
The presence of Hanni and CEO Kim Joo-young at the audit came after more than 100 investigation requests were submitted to the Seoul Regional Employment and Labor Bureau following the public disclosure of the “ignore her” accident during a live broadcast on September 11th. The Environment and Labor Committee held a general meeting on September 30 and chose Hanni as a witness. Although there was a lot of attention on the participation of Hanni, a Vietnamese-Australian idol, she declared her intention to appear via Phoneing. Upon his arrival at the National Assembly, he told reporters, “I don’t need to express my feelings (about participating) because our fans already understand my heart well.”
Source: Daum
