The parents of NewJeans members have taken to social media to share their perspectives on the highly publicized dispute between the group and their former agency, ADOR, a subsidiary of HYBE. They launched an Instagram account (jeanz_pr) and will share updates through the new account.
On January 31, they also released an official statement, beginning with, — “Hello. We are the parents of Minji, Hanni, Danielle, Haerin, and Hyein.”
The statement further reads, “This account is a temporary one, created out of necessity to represent our stance in the dispute with HYBE.
As we had no official platform to communicate our position, we made numerous efforts to relay the facts through direct interviews with various media outlets or by providing information to journalists we were able to reach.
While we are grateful that some media outlets reported our statements as they were, they were very few. We also attempted to distribute statements through an agency, but headlines were misleadingly written, making it extremely difficult for our stance to be conveyed accurately through the press.
While the members’ statements have only been published in a handful of articles unless they were distorted or placed within a negative narrative, HYBE and ADOR have been mass-distributing hundreds of articles daily, including those from pro-company media, without undergoing the standard journalistic fact-checking or right-to-reply processes. These articles often spread false information or only reflect HYBE and ADOR’s position.
Unfortunately, we have received reports that, ahead of the injunction lawsuit, HYBE and ADOR are once again distributing rumors and fabricated claims to multiple journalists in an attempt to spread false narratives about the members. This has led us to create this account.
We understand that some may be exhausted from this prolonged dispute, and we sincerely apologize for that. However, the content shared through this account will mainly cover matters that the members themselves find difficult to address. As their only current representatives, we are in urgent need of a channel to correct misinformation and provide accurate facts. We ask for your understanding.”
Previously, NewJeans created a separate Instagram to continue to communicate with fans after announcing its departure from ADOR. They are using the platform to make key announcements. Recently, the K-pop group announced hiring Law Firm Sejong (Shin & Kim LLC), the same law firm that represents former ADOR CEO Min Hee Jin.
On November 28, the group announced contract termination with ADOR by holding an emergency press conference, however, promised to carry out the scheduled activities.
In response, the label affirms that they are still artists under ADOR and the exclusive contract remains valid. They have filed two lawsuits against the members to confirm the validity of the exclusive contract and prevent them from signing advertising contracts independently.
Meanwhile, NewJeans wrapped scheduled activities with their appearance at the Golden Disc Awards earlier this month. They have publicly shown their support for Min Hee Jin and expressed their desire to work with her.
The conflict has been ongoing for nearly a year and fans are predicting a long legal battle ahead as NewJeans have parted ways with HYBE.