NewJeans’ Hanni has tearfully testified on workplace harassment at South Korea’s National Assembly.
- READ MORE: HYBE-ADOR feud: a comprehensive timeline of events
Hanni, real name Phạm Ngọc Hân, alleged that the entertainment agency Hybe deliberately undermined the group, while she also accused senior management of deliberately ignoring her.
She said, “I came to the realisation that this wasn’t just a feeling. I was honestly convinced that the company hated us.”
Following her testimony, Kim Joo-Young, the current CEO of the group’s record label, Ador – a subsidiary of Hybe – said she’d listen more closely to the artists on the label, and asked, “I wonder if there was more I could have done.”
Last month, Hanni, who turned 20 on October 6, was called to give evidence to the Labour Committee of the National Assembly at a hearing about workplace harassment after NewJeans discussed their experience following their mentor Min Hee-Jin leaving her role at Ador.
Min co-founded Ador in 2021, but a dispute between her and Hybe broke out in April this year – in August, the label’s board members dismissed her as CEO amid accusations that she was planning to split from Hybe and take NewJeans with her, which Min has repeatedly denied, also alleging that it wasn’t her choice to leave.
Throughout, the members of NewJeans continually expressed their support of Min, and in a YouTube livestream on September 11 they discussed issues with Hybe’s management, alleging workplace harassment, private leaks and the deletion of previously released content, among other concerns.
Hanni’s bandmate Minji gave Hybe chairman Bang Si-Hyuk an ultimatum to reinstate Min as CEO by September 25, but on that day Hybe rejected the request and cited its principle of keeping management and production separate, though affirming that Min would continue as producer.
One of Hanni’s claims was that, when she greeted the members of another band at the offices of their record label, a manager had told them to “ignore her,” and that her concerns had been disregarded when she brought them up.
In her testimony, she gave more context about the exchange, explaining: “We have a floor in our building where we do hair and make-up. And at that time, I was waiting in the hallway because my hair and make-up was done first.”
She said that, while she waited, three singers from another band came past with their manager so she said hello to them. “They came back about five or 10 minutes later,” she continued. “On her way out, [the manager] made eye contact with me, turned to the rest of the group and said, ‘Ignore her like you didn’t see her.’
“I don’t understand why she would say something like that in the work environment.”
She alleged that this wasn’t a standalone incident, with senior members of the agency’s management ignoring her too, adding, “Since my debut [in NewJeans], we ran into a person in a high-up position many times, but they never greeted me when I greeted them.
“I understood from living in Korea that I have to be polite to older people and that’s part of the culture,” said Hanni, who is Vietnamese-Australian, “But I think it’s just disrespectful as a human being to not greet us, regardless of our professional status. There was a certain vibe that I felt within the company.”
Other allegations she made were that employees had been bad-mouthing NewJeans on the communications app Blind and that Hybe’s PR department had asked a journalist to downplay the group’s achievement – reinforcing her feelings that “the company hated us”.
She became emotional during her testimony, finishing by wiping away tears: “A lot of people have been worried about us. Some fans apologised for making us go through this, but I’m grateful to Korea for allowing me to do what I love. The ones who should be apologising are avoiding responsibility, and that frustrates me.”
Meanwhile, fellow Korean singer Jungkook of BTS seemingly shared a message of support for NewJeans last month. He wrote on Instagram, “Artists are not guilty” and “Don’t use them.”
His management then released a statement, as translated by Soompi, which read: “We have confirmed that he made the posts because he thought that under no circumstances should young artists be dragged into conflicts or used as a shield,” though it did not explicitly mention Hybe, Ador or NewJeans.