KBS apologized for airing false information about NewJeans.
KBS stated on the official homepage's viewer petition board on the 27th, "During an in-depth interview with an external grants on the radio program 'Success Prediction with Lee Dae-ho' on Aug. 25, a mistake was made concerning NewJeans. We would like to correct and apologize for this."
KBS stated, "As of Aug. 2025, the 'validity confirmation lawsuit for exclusive contracts' between NewJeans and ADOR is ongoing, so the part where the grants mentioned in the broadcast said, 'It was concluded that NewJeans should belong to ADOR, and NewJeans accepted that result' is not true." It added, "The grants misjudged this based on the temporary injunction ruling made by the Seoul Central District Court in March 2025 and did not accurately understand the main lawsuit's content."
It continued, "As NewJeans is active under the name NJZ and the new song video posted on YouTube is neither an official video nor an officially released audio, the mention in the broadcast that the grants said, 'NJZ officially released an audio' was also not true. I sincerely apologize to NewJeans, their fans, and the listeners for causing worry and confusion with inaccurate statements regarding the lawsuit situation and audio release about NewJeans."
It also stated, "Considering the nature of radio, which is broadcast live, it is challenging to fact-check answers immediately. However, the grants needed to exercise more careful attention to their responses and failed to do so. The day after the viewer petition was posted, an apology was published on the program's homepage and YouTube content. Editing and deletion were carried out concerning the 'inaccurate parts' remaining in the recorded video of the YouTube content and replay features, and related articles were deleted. An apology and correction were made during the live broadcast of the program on Aug. 11, 2025, at 10:05 a.m."
Lastly, it stated, "In the future, we will thoroughly adhere to the broadcasting standards and ethics set by KBS to ensure such incidents do not happen again. Furthermore, during interviews with grants, efforts will be made to scrutinize the script content in detail by grants, writers, producers, and hosts through every step, including recruitment, questionnaire preparation, script review, and on the day of appearance, with all possible efforts to confirm accurate facts."
Earlier, on the 8th, during a broadcast of KBS1 radio 'Success Prediction with Lee Dae-ho,' a research analyst from a securities firm appeared as a panelist and mentioned that "it was concluded that NewJeans should belong to ADOR, and NewJeans accepted that result" and "NewJeans officially released an audio as NJZ," which caused controversy.
Soon after the broadcast, a petition was posted on the viewer petition board demanding action against the false information aired by the KBS1 radio panel and requesting measures to prevent its recurrence, which received over 2,700 signatures.
Meanwhile, NewJeans is currently on hiatus. In March, the Seoul Central District Court upheld ADOR's petition for interim relief against the five members of NewJeans, blocking their independent activities. The members immediately protested and filed an objection, but the court dismissed it. Their appeal was also ineffective.
[Photo] OSEN DB
[OSEN]