CJ ENM apologizes for rehiring PD Ahn Jun-young for 'manipulating Produce Series'

 CJ ENM apologizes for rehiring PD Ahn Jun-young for 'manipulating Produce Series'

"Misjudgment"

CJ ENM has apologized for rehiring PD Ahn Joon-young, who was sentenced to two years in prison and fined 37 million won for manipulating the rankings of Mnet's audition program "Produce 101," saying it was a "wrong decision" after criticism.

"The decision to give him a chance to make up for his past mistakes did not meet society's standards of fairness," CJ ENM said in a statement on Friday.

"We apologize to the many people who love Mnet and to our employees who have been working silently with the pride of being the best content company," the company said.

"We humbly accept our shortcomings in hiring standards and will quickly correct the issues that have been revealed to prevent similar incidents from happening again."

The company has not terminated Ms. Ahn, who has already been rehired. At this time, Ahn PD has not received any work assignments.

Ahn PD was sentenced to two years in prison for falsifying viewer text voting results on the idol audition "Produce 101" series.

After the court ruling was finalized, CJ ENM held a personnel committee and imposed severe discipline on Ahn PD. After serving his sentence, Ahn PD left Mnet last year and rejoined the company this month in a career position.

When the news of Ahn PD's reinstatement became public, criticism poured in, asking whether it was right to give him another chance after he destroyed the trainees' chances of making their debut through vote manipulation.

Ahn PD's manipulation of the rankings of the groups IOI, wannaone, izone, and X1, which were created through the production series, as well as the audition participants, have been severely damaged in their subsequent activities, and fans who have been supporting them have been shocked.