South Korea’s Blue House, or the presidential office, rejected a public petition to stop the filming and cancel the airing of the upcoming Korean drama “Snowdrop.”
“Snowdrop” will star actor Jung Hae-in and BLACKPINK’s Jisoo, and is set in Seoul in 1987, an important year in South Korea in which pro-democracy movements and rallies were held to condemn the killing and torture of a student activist and demand the holding of a direct presidential election.
The online petition against “Snowdrop” was filed on March 26 on the Blue House website, stating that "history proved that there was no North Korean involvement in the democracy movement. But the drama adopted a North Korean spy as a lead role. It is also trying to defend the spy agency which tortured and killed under the name of the government. The synopsis itself mocks the victims and cannot be approved under the name of the drama. The production of the series should be stopped and canceled," the Korea Times reported.
Under the Blue House rules, if a petition reaches 200,000 signatures in 30 days, the government and Blue House officials will reply. The “Snowdrop” petition garnered more than 200,000 signatures.
In “Snowdrop” Jung Hae-in will play the role of Im Soo-ho, a graduate student who, covered in blood, goes into a women’s university dormitory. Jisoo will play the role of a college student who takes him in and hides him from the authorities, and falls in love with him.
Korean TV channel JTBC also issued a statement on March 30 “reiterating our position to resolve the misunderstanding from speculation and criticism that still continues after the announcement of our position about ‘Snowdrop.’”
It said the controversy stemmed from a piece of information consisting of a combination of unfinished synopsis and character introduction. JTBC said suspicions were added to the leaked information and non-factual information is being presented as true.
“Of course, this is the responsibility of the production team for failing to thoroughly manage unrefined data,” it said. “‘Snowdrop’ is not a drama that deals with democratic movements. The setting in which male and female protagonists participate in or lead democratic movements does not exist anywhere in the script. Rather, a character who was unfairly oppressed and accused as a spy under the military regime in the 1980s appears.”
JTBC added that the background of “Snowdrop” is not the democratic movement but the political situation of the 1987 presidential election. “Snowdrop” is a fictional story about the military regime and the Agency for National Security Planning (ANSP) conspiring with North Korea to maintain power, it added.
In rejecting the online petition, the Blue House cited Article 4 of Korea’s Broadcasting Act which guarantees freedom and independence in relation to the programming of broadcasters, and stipulates that no regulation or interference other than in accordance with the law is allowed.
It said direct government intervention in creative works can infringe on freedom of expression, so a cautious approach is required.
“The government respects the self-correction efforts and autonomous choices made by the private sector, including creators, producers, and audiences, for content that goes against public sentiment,” the Blue House stated.
However, the Blue House warned that “broadcasts that undermine the public responsibility of broadcasting, such as excessive distortion of history, or violate regulations, are subject to deliberation by the Korea Communications Standards Commission.”
Article 4 of the Broadcasting Act about the "Public Responsibility of Broadcast" states that “1. The broadcast shall respect the dignity and value of human beings and the democratic fundamental order. 2) The broadcast shall contribute to the democratic formation of public opinion on public matters by means of data collection, news, comments and other ways, and perform its public function by converging harmoniously various opinions of all levels of society. 3) The broadcast shall not infringe on the honor or rights of others or public morality or social ethics,” according to the Korea Legislation Research Institute.