Bullying accusations and allegations were a head start to this year with a number of idols and actors accused, some of the accused owned up while some of them were wrongly accused but were involved in nasty scandals. Recently, ITZY’s main vocal LIA was accused of school bullying by her former classmate and following the allegations, Itzy’s management company JYP Entertainment took legal actions against the schoolmate who claimed to be a victim for defamation.
What Happened to ITZY’s Lia?
On February 24, Lia, the main vocalist for the girl group Itzy was accused of school bullying by a middle school classmate of hers. The alleged victim uploaded a post saying “Victim of school violence perpetrated by famous female idol born in 2000”. After the allegations JYP pressed charges against the said classmate for defamation of the idol but on June 13th, a source revealed that the classmate termed as “A” was cleared of all defamation charges pressed against them. “In consideration of the circumstances in which Mr. A posted on the Internet community and the contents of the post, we have determined that the charge of defamation is not established.”
A also told one of the media outlets in Korea that “I still have a hard time mentally when I think about those days. I am hoping for a genuine apology.”
Lia was accused of bullying A’s friend, making her force money from the friend and others and using foul and rude language with her and other students. The accuser hinted at being bullied by Lia in 2018, claiming that she verbally abused her.
Lia also known as Choi Jisoo made her debut at the age of 20, with a five member girl group Itzy under JYP entertainment. The girls Yeji, Ryujin, Lia, Chaeryeong and Yuna have amassed huge success ever since their debut track “Dalla Dalla“, topping charts in just 10 days. The girls recently made their comeback with “in the morning” which is a very intense song with powerful choreography.
JYP’s Full statement Issued after Lia was accused of bullying
‘This is JYP Entertainment.
We are informing you of our company position on the case related to our artist ITZY’s Lia that was recently reported in the media.
1. When we first filed a suit against [the individual in question], we were not filing a suit against a victim of school violence, but a suit against posts and comments that we determined to be malicious, like those below.
2. During the police investigation, we learned that of the five above posts, four of the posts were written by the same individual while switching online nicknames, while one post was written by a different individual.
However, while the police was still investigating this case, a person who appeared to be the writer of the above posts wrote on another online community last February that they were being investigated by the police. The writer complained in the post that they and their acquaintance had been victims of school violence, but shortly afterwards, someone who seemed to be the acquaintance mentioned in the original post uploaded their own post on the same online community, saying that they did not consider the incident in question school violence and that they thought it was not a big deal. After that, the writer of the original post repeatedly uploaded posts before deleting them.
3. After our legal representative filed a complaint on Lia’s behalf and responded with legal action, the police decided not to forward the case against the two writers of the [malicious] posts to the prosecution. However, the police stated in their press interviews that while they decided not to forward the case to the prosecution because they did not have proof that the posts were false, they were not acknowledging that the posts were true. In other words, they were saying that their decision not to forward the case to the prosecution did not mean they were confirming that Lia had participated in school violence.
Accordingly, our artist and the company plan to file an appeal and request a reinvestigation into the charge of defamation of character through falsehoods. This is because we want the truth to be clearly revealed through a deeper investigation. This is because we believe that while it is unacceptable for there to be victims who unfairly suffered [school violence], it is also unacceptable for there to be victims who suffer because of false accusations and distorted claims.’
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