A national petition requesting the disposal of the drama Perfect Crown, which has been embroiled in controversy over historical distortion, has recorded nearly 80% agreement.
On the 22nd, a petition urging the disposal of Perfect Crown was posted on the National Assembly's national consent petition board. The petitioner said, "Clear historical verification errors and directing that repeatedly exposes suspicions of a certain country's Northeast Project intent are provoking public outrage."
They pointed to distortions of national dignity and titles, indiscriminate appropriation of foreign culture, and errors in national symbolic attire as major problems.
The petitioner also raised issues with the production team's response. He said, "When criticism arose, the production team only released a statement that they would retroactively revise the audio and subtitles and proceeded with the broadcast. However, at a time when K-content is spreading globally in real time through global OTT platforms, this is like locking the barn after the horse is gone and provides an obvious pretext for surrounding countries' attempts to invade history and culture, a treasonous direction. According to Article 5 (publicness and fairness of broadcasting) of the Broadcasting Act, broadcasting should elevate the nation's subjectivity and properly cultivate public sentiment. Content that damages national identity by using the public asset of airwaves and media platforms should not be absolved by simple disciplinary action or subtitle revisions. As with past precedents where broadcasts were canceled due to historical distortion, this drama should also be immediately disposed of. Therefore, at the National Assembly level, we strongly request the following immediate measures," he said.
Specifically, the petitioner demanded immediate suspension of broadcasting by the Korea Communications Standards Commission, complete deletion and disposal of the program from domestic and international VOD and OTT (all domestic and international platforms) services, and measures such as permanent expulsion systems including exclusion from future government grants and restrictions on broadcasting licenses for the production company.
This petition expires on June 21, and if it obtains 50,000 supporters within 30 days it will be referred to the relevant standing committee. As of 2 p.m. on the 25th, about 38,000 people had agreed, reaching 77% in three days.
In episode 11, which aired on the 15th, the male lead, Prince Iaan (played by Byeon Woo-seok), attended his coronation wearing a gu-ryu mianryugwan and received the shout "cheonse cheonse cheoncheonse" from attendees. Immediately after the broadcast, viewers strongly criticized the scene as a serious error that could lend legitimacy to and provide a pretext for China's historical distortion project "Northeast Project," which claims that Joseon was once a vassal state of China.
As the controversy grew, the production team said, "We sincerely bow and apologize for causing concern over worldbuilding settings and historical verification issues. We are taking viewers' criticisms seriously and will revise the audio and subtitles of the relevant parts as quickly as possible in subsequent rebroadcasts and VOD and OTT services," and director Park Jun-hwa, writer Yoo Ji-won, and lead actors IU and Byeon Woo-seok also apologized.
They then muted the problematic "cheonse cheonse cheoncheonse" segment in rebroadcasts and OTT VOD services and also deleted the subtitles.
[Photo] Provided by MBC
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