On August 24th, SBS’ “Unanswered Questions” apologized regarding the “Billboard and Girl Group” episode, which dealt with girl group FIFTY FIFTY’s incident.
“Unanswered Questions” said, “The ‘Unanswered Questions – Billboard and Girl Group’ episode, which aired on August 19th, was produced to think about what it takes to become a sustainable K-pop through FIFTY FIFTY’s incident.”
They apologized, “Contrary to the production team’s intention, the broadcast ended up hurting the hearts of many people working in the K-pop scene and fans who love K-pop. We deeply apologize for that.”
They continued, “We will also listen to the words and criticisms from organizations such as the Korea Management Federation and the Korea Entertainment Producers’ Association.”
In response to the criticism that the broadcast is biased and defends FIFTY FIFTY, “Unanswered Questions” said, “We make it clear that we did not side with either party or the interests surrounding them.“
Regarding a few matters that are currently in controversy, they promised to fill in the missing parts with an additional follow-up episode through additional coverage.
Earlier on August 19th, SBS’ “Unanswered Questions” dealt with the exclusive contract dispute between FIFTY FIFTY and their agency Attrakt, but faced a strong backlash after the broadcast.
Many viewers pointed out that the program only repeated what had been covered by various media outlets and even omitted significant aspects, such as the applications for trademarks and The Givers CEO Ahn Sung Il’s forgery of education and career background, etc. Especially, “Unanswered Questions” was also criticized for their biased attitude towards FIFTY FIFTY as they ended the broadcast by highlighting the emotions of the members through a letter without objective verifications.
More than 4,000 complaints were posted on the viewer bulletin board of “Unanswered Questions”. The petition for the abolition of “Unanswered Questions” was also posted on the National Assembly Petition Board on August 23rd.
