Snowdrop is under severe controversy, JTBC releases new statement

Spoiler Alert: This article contains spoilers. Proceed with caution if you have not watched the show/movie.

The ongoing South Korean TV series, Snowdrop is now encircled with controversies. Snowdrop is an ongoing South Korean television series starring Jung Hae-in, Jisoo, Yoo In-na, Jang Seung-jo, Yoon Se-ah, Kim Hye-yoon, and Jung Yoo-jin. Snowdrop premiered on JTBC on last Saturday, December 18, 2021.

Snowdrop has come under fire in South Korea for reportedly distorting historical facts about the nation’s pro-democracy movement. The first two episodes has confronted severe revolt on the web world. More than 200,000 signatures have been received on a petition that demands the discontinuation of its broadcast.

One of the three largest sponsors of JTBC's Snowdrop cancelled its sponsorship after the drama's controversy over historical inaccuracy. Snowdrop is set against the backdrop of the 1987 Democracy Movement, which was a mass protest movement with the purpose of forcing the then-current authoritarian government in South Korea to hold fair elections. As a result of mass protests, democratic elections were held in December 1987, which would later lead to the end of authoritarian rule in South Korea and the establishment of democratic rule in the Sixth Republic of Korea.

A national Blue House petition was created on December 18 in order to compel the broadcaster to stop airing Snowdrop. The petition states, “There are definite activist victims who were tortured and killed during the democratization movement because they were [falsely] accused of being spies without any grounds. Creating a drama with a plot like that despite this historical truth undermines the value of the democratization movement.” The advertisers such as Heungil Furniture, fashion brands Ganisong, and Hans Electronics issued an apology and announced cancellation of sponsorship.

According to Soompi, JTBC has released a new statement on December 21 in response to the severe backlash. Here it goes:

Following the broadcast of “Snowdrop,” controversy is not dying down based on false information, so we are releasing a statement.

First of all, the background and motif for important incidents in “Snowdrop” are the time of military regime. With this background, it contains a fictional story of the party in power colluding with the North Korean government in order to maintain authority. “Snowdrop” is a creative work that shows the personal stories of individuals who were used and victimized by those in power.

There is no spy who leads the democratization movement in “Snowdrop.” The male and female leads were not shown as participating in or leading the democratization movement in episodes 1 and 2, and they do not do so in any part of the future script.

Most of the misunderstandings regarding concerns of “history distortion” and “disparaging the democratization movement” criticized by many people will be settled through the progress of the drama’s plot. The drama includes the production team’s intent of hoping for no repetition of an abnormal era in which individual freedom and happiness are oppressed by unjust power.

Although we unfortunately cannot reveal much of the plot ahead of each episode, we ask that you watch over the future progress of the plot.

In addition, in order to hear the valuable opinions regarding JTBC’s contents, we will listen to diverse voices by opening the portal site’s real-time chat window and the official viewers’ message board.

The main values that JTBC aims for are the freedom of content creation and independence of production. Based on this, JTBC will continue to contribute full effort into showcasing great broadcasts.

Stay tuned to Devdiscourse to get the latest updates on the South Korean series and films.

Also Read: Sweet Home Season 2: Is Studio Dragon releasing it in 2022? Know in detail