SEOUL, Dec 3 – Former music label ADOR chief executive Min Hee-jin has filed a defamation lawsuit against two senior company executives from entertainment giant HYBE and two journalists from Dispatch, alleging false reporting and slander.
Markol Consulting Group, who is representing Min alongside Sejong Law Firm, confirmed the lawsuit was lodged with the Yongsan Police Station yesterday.
“We have filed a lawsuit for the violations of the Act on Promotion of Information and Communication Network Utilisation and Information Protection with the Yongsan Police Station,” it said in a statement.
The statement named former HYBE chief executive officer Park Ji-won, HYBE chief operating officer Park Tae-hee and reporters Kim Ji-ho and Park Hye-jin from the tabloid Dispatch.
According to the statement, the allegations stem from events in April, when the two HYBE executives allegedly accessed and leaked private conversations about Min.
Markol Consulting Group claimed the executives worked with the Dispatch reporters to publish articles aimed at discrediting Min based on the executives’ claims.
Markol Consulting also pointed to a recent article by the reporters, published on December 2, as evidence of ongoing defamation.
The statement described the article as “far from the truth,” claiming it included “one-sided assumptions and guesses.”
The article had claimed, among others, that Min had allegedly used sexual favours to climb up the ranks, and “employed love spells by shamans” to achieve this.
HYBE, known for managing top K-pop acts such as BTS, has not issued a statement regarding the allegations.
Recently, chart-topping girl group NewJeans said they are quitting the label ADOR after its parent HYBE tried to push Min out.
Dispatch is one of South Korea’s leading entertainment news outlets and has faced criticism in the past for its reporting practices.
