Related Content Deleted
Just two days after the documentary by BBC News Korea, which reexamined the Burning Sun scandal, surpassed 3 million views and caused a stir, BBC officially apologized to KBS for an error in the documentary claiming that “a KBS lawyer contacted and pressured the victim side of Jung Joon-young, who was involved in ‘Burning Sun.’”
Singer Jung Joon-young illegally filmed and distributed sexual intercourse videos. Photo by Kang Jin-hyung aymsdream@
On the 22nd, KBS stated, “BBC sent an official statement to KBS early this morning Korean time, acknowledging that there was an error caused by their mistake in the documentary released on the ‘BBC News Korea’ and ‘BBC World Service’ YouTube channels, and promptly deleted and corrected the relevant part.”
BBC News Korea covered the stories of journalists investigating the Burning Sun case involving Jung Joon-young, singer Seungri, Choi Jong-hoon, and others through the documentary titled ‘Burning Sun: The Stories of Women Who Exposed K-pop Stars’ Secret Chatrooms.’ In the process, it also mentioned the case in which Jung Joon-young was accused in 2016 of filming parts of his then-girlfriend’s body. Due to this case, Jung Joon-young left KBS’s ‘1 Night 2 Days,’ but after the police and prosecution closed the case with no charges, he returned to the show three months later.
The documentary addressed this incident by explaining, “Jung Joon-young was gaining popularity appearing on the famous TV show ‘1 Night 2 Days’ aired by KBS,” and “a lawyer from the channel (KBS) contacted A, the person who filed the complaint against Jung Joon-young.” In the next scene, Park Hyo-sil, a reporter who covered the case at the time, said, “The lawyer said, ‘If the evidence is insufficient, you could face a heavy penalty for false accusation,’” and added, “(The victim) was very scared after hearing this. So she withdrew the complaint at that time.”
After this content was released, some speculated that KBS’s legal team might have acted to protect Jung Joon-young, who was a cast member of ‘1 Night 2 Days.’
BBC corrected that the legal advice received by Jung’s ex-girlfriend was not from a KBS lawyer but “confirmed to be independent legal counsel that the ex-girlfriend herself directly sought.” They also stated, “We clearly say that this error was BBC’s mistake, not that of the interviewed reporter Park Hyo-sil.”
Reporter Park, who appeared in the video, also said through an article, “The statement that ‘a KBS lawyer contacted A, who filed a complaint against Jung Joon-young’ was not my remark,” and “KBS was not a direct party to the Jung Joon-young case, and naturally, no KBS lawyer took action regarding the program cast member.” She clarified, “The ‘lawyer’s words’ I mentioned in the interview were those of the victim’s lawyer.”
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