On February 19, the Instagram account representing the girl group NJZ (formerly NewJeans), managed by the members' parents, criticized 5 Korean music institutions and accused HYBE Group of taking advantage of the media to manipulate public opinion, Chairman Bang Si Hyuk deliberately obstructed NJZ's activities.
NJZ said it saw statements from five music organizations - including the Korea Entertainment Management Association, the Korea Entertainment Producers Association, the Korea Record Industry Association, the Korea Record Industry Association, and the Korea Music Content Association - in media on the morning of February 19.
These five organizations called for the establishment of laws to prevent interference in the music industry. They criticized former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin's press conference opening and public manipulation, and the unilateral announcement of a contract termination by 5 NewJeans members without going through legal procedures, which caused a crisis for the Kpop industry.
NJZ responded, It is a pity that these five organizations made statements that damaged the fairness of the trial, by considering unverified information as true, while the trial on the temporary ban and related issues has not yet begun.
NJZ questioned the role of the above organizations, when NJZ suffered from injustice and pressure from HYBE and when misinformation about NJZ was spreading in the media without being controlled.
NJZ affirmed that the termination of the contract between the group and ADOR (a company owned by HYBE) is in full compliance with the legal principles of Korea, because ADOR does not have the will and capacity to prevent HYBE from trying to eliminate NJZ.
NJZ criticized the five music organizations: Their point of view is no different from saying that exclusive contracts should be operated as a slave contract to avoid collapsing the Kpop industry.
NJZ asked five organizations to stop manipulating public opinion just to represent the stance and interests of a specific company.
For the K-pop industry to thrive sustainably, mistakes from companies that only consider artists as tools to make money and are willing to replace them as components need to be corrected through court judgments, NJZ emphasized.
In addition, NJZ revealed that, according to information from a representative of the ComplexCon festival, HYBE President Bang Si Hyuk personally called US partners to intervene and caused NJZ's performance to be canceled.
However, despite HYBE's objections, NJZ's (Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, Hyein) performance at the ComplexCon music event held in Hong Kong (China) still took place as planned on March 23.
