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Two days ago, Mnet, a company under CJ ENM, made headlines for rehiring Ahn Joon-young. The PD was sentenced to two years in jail in May 2020, with a fine of 36 million KRW. The Supreme Court of Korea also found him guilty and stayed his sentence. The director was accused of rigging votes in all four seasons of Produce 101, an idol survival program.
On April 5, 2023, CJ ENM released a lengthy statement apologizing in detail for hiring the infamous producing director Ahn Joon-young.
Netizens did not take the news lightly, which led to increased backlash directed towards Mnet and CJ ENM online. As the controversy kept growing and did not seem to slow down, the company made a public statement to address the same.
“We have disappointed many”: CJ ENM releases statement addressing Ahn Joon-young’s controversial return to Mnet
In a trial that took place in 2020, producing director Ahn Joon-young admitted to manipulating votes for the final trainees in four seasons of Produce 101. He claimed that he did so out of pressure to make the show a success and not out of bribery, which was one of the accusations that was raised against him.
Survival shows like Produce 101 bank on fan votes to determine the final round of winners, who debut as a temporary group in the industry. After the vote manipulation scandal broke out, it was difficult for netizens to take many of the winners at face value and support them like before, leading to much criticism in the K-pop fandom.
Rehiring Ahn Joon-young, who was released from prison in November 2021, was deemed extremely problematic by many. After seeing the severe backlash online, CJ ENM released a statement calling their decision “an inexcusable wrong decision.” The company added that it was to “give him a second chance.”
As translated via Soompi, their statement explained:
“We sincerely apologize to all those who were disappointed with Mnet’s hiring for an experienced employee position. The decision to hire PD Ahn Joon-young was an inexcusable wrong decision. The decision to give him a second chance to make up for his past wrongs did not meet society’s expectations regarding fairness.”
They further apologized to Mnet’s executives, employees, and fans. They added that their voting management system was introduced to add “fairness” in audition programs, which would take in global viewers’ opinions too. They mentioned the ways Mnet attempted to make the process more transparent.
“Over the past four years, our company established a voting management system that is separate from production in order to improve the fairness of audition programs. In addition, we have increased the transparency of the production process by strengthening the monitoring system and operating the Viewer Committee.”
The company added that they would attempt to prevent such incidents in the future and once again apologized for their decision.
“Nevertheless, we humbly accept what we were lacking in relation to the recruitment standards and will promptly supplement the problems revealed this time to prevent similar incidents from recurring."
Furthermore, they stated:
"We ask for your continued encouragement and reprimand for our efforts to achieve fairness and restore trust. We deeply reflect on the fact that we have disappointed many people through this incident and once again bow our heads in apology.”
However, CJ ENM’s statement did not mention whether PD Ahn Joon-young will still hold a position in the company or not. A representative from the company told Newsen that they were discussing Ahn Joon-young’s future in CJ ENM.
