{"id":130716,"date":"2025-05-25T13:16:14","date_gmt":"2025-05-25T13:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/130716\/"},"modified":"2025-05-25T13:16:14","modified_gmt":"2025-05-25T13:16:14","slug":"fifty-fifty-agency-loses-defamation-case-against-sbs-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/130716\/","title":{"rendered":"FIFTY FIFTY agency loses defamation case against SBS show"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

According to a report by Herald Economy on May 25, Jeon Hong Joon<\/strong>, CEO of ATTRAKT<\/strong> and the producer behind FIFTY FIFTY<\/a><\/strong>, has lost a civil defamation case filed against producers of the SBS investigative program ‘Unanswered Questions’<\/strong>. The court ruled that the program\u2019s 2023 broadcast, which examined the group\u2019s contract dispute with its agency, did not contain any false or defamatory information.<\/p>\n

The Seoul Southern District Court<\/strong> dismissed Jeon\u2019s<\/strong> lawsuit seeking approximately USD 220,000<\/strong> in damages, concluding that the content was either fact-based or founded on reasonable interpretation. The court also ordered ATTRAKT<\/strong> to pay the full legal costs.<\/p>\n

The episode in question, titled ‘Billboard and Girl Groups \u2013 Who Clipped Their Wings?’<\/strong>, aired in August 2023 and focused on the abrupt breakdown of relations between FIFTY FIFTY<\/strong> and ATTRAKT<\/strong>, despite the girl group\u2019s unprecedented global success. Their hit single ‘Cupid’<\/strong> had charted on the Billboard Hot 100 for over 21 weeks.<\/p>\n

The broadcast raised concerns over financial transparency at ATTRAKT<\/strong>, and featured interviews with former staff and the members\u2019 parents alleging harsh internal practices and emotional stress. It also included claims that food brought by parents was thrown away and that leadership was absent from performance evaluations.<\/p>\n

While ATTRAKT<\/strong> denied the allegations and labeled them as false, the court found otherwise. It confirmed that music revenue was missing from internal settlement documents\u2014a fact the agency later admitted\u2014and stated that the program relied on analyses from tax professionals, business professors, and official government data.<\/p>\n

The court also rejected the agency\u2019s claim that the segment about food disposal was false, citing consistent statements from family members. It emphasized that the production team made more than ten interview requests to Jeon<\/strong>, all of which were declined.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lack of full fairness or balance in a broadcast alone does not constitute defamation,\u201d the court stated in its ruling.<\/p>\n

In March 2024, the Korea Communications Standards Commission<\/strong> issued a warning to ‘Unanswered Questions’<\/strong> after receiving over 1,100 viewer complaints, though the broadcast was not legally sanctioned.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Since the dispute, only Keena<\/strong> has returned to ATTRAKT<\/strong>, while the other three original members signed with different agencies. The agency has since restructured FIFTY FIFTY<\/strong> into a new five-member group.<\/p>\n

SEE ALSO: [INTERVIEW] FIFTY FIFTY talks recent project \u2018Day & Night\u2019 and artistic goals: \u201cWe hope to keep striving and improving as artists\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"According to a report by Herald Economy on May 25, Jeon Hong Joon, CEO of ATTRAKT and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130717,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[39608,77,57709,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-130716","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-allkpop","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-fifty-fifty","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114568664525891601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130716\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}