Criticism is flooding as JTBC heralded a tough legal response to the controversy over history distortion of its weekend drama “Snowdrop.”
On Dec 31st, an article titled “I file a complaint against the legal complaint announcement regarding the viewers’ criticism opinion of JTBC drama ‘Snowdrop’” was posted on the bulletin board of the Blue House National Petition. As of 9 a.m., the number of signs has exceeded 2,200. With more than 100 people agreeing in advance, the administrator is reviewing the complaint.
The author said, “Today, as more than 360,000 people agreed to the petition to suspend the broadcast of “Snowdrop”, JTBC issued the following notices to various communities,” adding, “JTBC is trying to shut down viewers’ right to criticize. More than 360,000 people agreed that the drama “Snowdrop” disparaged the democratization movement and beautified the National Security Agency, but our complaint is dismissed as false information and weaving.”
In addition, they said, “The male protagonist is a North Korean agent who disguised himself as a graduate student at the University of Berlin and infiltrated Korea in 1987,” and demanded, “I am reminded of the Dongbaeklim Incident, so please explain. Don’t just apologize without actually being sorry and covering up everything by portraying the heroine in episode 5 as being lonely and regretting what she did when the heroine and her friends mistook the male lead as an activist and treated his wound. There are countless people who had died in 1987 after being tortured as spies.” They also mentioned a line, which to them is problematic, saying, “There was a line that was intended for the NSA Director’s daughter to hide her concern, saying that ‘Our employees should protect the lives of the people rather than the lives of the employees,’ but when did the NSA Director appear to be so humane and paternal? I’m scared of what foreigners who don’t know Korean history will think.”
The author criticized, “’Snowdrop’ has a historical background with historical reality. There are characters that may remind viewers of that era. However, ‘Snowdrop is a fictional creation, please watch it as a drama’ only sounds like they will not take responsibility for their own creation. JTBC uses ‘legal action’ as a weapon to censor the viewers. Without answering the questions raised by the viewers, they keep repeating the same words of ‘Snowdrop does not distort history’.”
On the previous day, JTBC’s legal team sent an official letter to online communities such as Clien and theqoo, saying, “We are trying to respond strongly in order to protect the creators, broadcasters and content rights against the enormous damage caused by the spread of false information about the drama ‘Snowdrop’.” They also explained, “The claims that ‘spies lead and participate in the democratization movement’ or ‘spies disguise themselves as student activists and infiltrate the activist group’ are not relevant throughout episodes 1~16. People claim that this is a love story between an activist college student and a spy, but the female protagonist (Young-ro) is not an activist student.”
