Following the rejection of DSP Media’s defamation lawsuits against the brother of former APRIL member Hyunjoo over bullying allegations, DSP tried to clarify that the result wasn’t damning because it didn’t say authorities agreed she was bullied in the group. Now Hyunjoo’s legal team has responded by advising DSP to stop with the bullshit and provided receipts in the form of the legal document that showed the exact reason authorities rejected the lawsuit.
“We repeat our warnings to DSP Media to refrain from causing the public to misunderstand with their ambiguous contents (statements) and ask them to only make the necessary statements as required by legal procedures.”
Yeah.
2.) Judgement
The parts that the suspect wrote that are causing problems 1.) the contents that Lee Hyunjoo received bullying from the group 2.) the contents that the team members that just laughed and passed by instead of greeting her mother who came to the company 3.) the contents that there was rotten kimbap on Lee Hyunjoo’s seat in the car and that the rest of the members and the manager got angry that it smelled and cursed 4.) the contents that the plaintiff put cheonggukkjang in a tumbler that was bought by Lee Hyunjoo’s grandmother 5.) the contents that a member wore Lee Hyunjoo’s shoes and threw them as they told her to take them 6.) the contents that the plaintiff did not greet Lee Hyunjoo’s mother and just laughed and passed by. Considering these contents, the suspect saw articles (referral to records 329-332) reporting that APRIL suffered damage after Lee Hyunjoo’s departure from her group and additional clarification regarding bullying rumors and wanted to correct the truth that she left the group on her own terms. Additionally, considering that Lee Hyunjoo’s bullying was publicly known before the writing of the suspect’s post, as well as no new abusive acts or content worthy of harm from the suspect, with the existing abusive acts specified in detail and the abusive acts not highlighted, and the fact that APRIL is a well-known celebrity that is related to public interest, it is difficult to see that the suspect had a purpose of slander.
2.) Judgement
The accused (Hyunjoo’s brother) is also in actual fact, the younger brother of former APRIL member, Lee Hyunjoo and it is true that he had heard about the incidents from Lee Hyunjoo herself. Additionally, with regards to the bullying allegations, looking at (censored information), Lee Hyunjoo had indeed been having a tough time due to being bullied by the group and the tumbler incident and the shoes incident that happened during APRIL’s promotions were also overall true, and the accuser (the person that filed the lawsuit) had also admitted to that the incidents had existed (referral to records 67-68) hence the parts written by the accused under the clause ‘2) Judgement’ 1~6, were things that occurred between Lee Hyunjoo and the accuser during their time as a group, and as it does not stray too far from the truth and cannot be judged as a falsehood. As with the above, the accused is also in fact Lee Hyunjoo’s younger brother who had directly heard about the incidents. Furthermore, as the contents in the post have been reported in various articles, it is hard to claim that the accused had consciously created falsehoods while writing the post. Hence, it is not acknowledged that the accused, (name) had committed slander and the lawsuit will not be accepted.
Emphasis mine.
Okay, so DSP just lied then. At first I thought it was possible the media reports got it wrong since they quoted the legal document selectively. I gave them the benefit of the doubt because, hey, gotta remain objective and it’s entirely possible the media would fuck things up in their hurry to churn the outrage machine.
Nope.
Everything else about the police not determining the outcome of lawsuits is still true, but man, they appeared to see the same things in terms of the accusers themselves admitting to a lot of what happened and being confused as to how then it would be defamation. I don’t know how DSP’s lawsuit against Hyunjoo herself will turn out, but being neutral at this point just seems like sticking your head in the sand.