"I felt so proud"— NewJeans Minji praises Hanni for her National Assembly Audit appearance in a recent livestream

On Friday, October 19, NewJeans' Minji and Hanni kicked off a livestream on Phoning. During the session, they talked about many things, including Hanni's recent appearance at the National Assembly Audit. Hanni recounted the moment when she started to cry as she delivered her speech at the audit.

She admitted that she hadn't expected to cry, but she couldn't help as she expressed the alleged bullying and disrespect she faced at the hands of HYBE Labels' staff members. The idol noted that she noticed the camera shutters being a lot faster and louder when she began to cry.

"I’m human too, right? I can cry. When the tears started flowing, I definitely noticed the camera shutters went off more, haha. Who took those photos?! Let’s have a little chat, hahaha. But yeah, I couldn't help but cry," she shared.

Minji also reacted to her fellow member crying at the National Assembly audit. She stated that she didn't know that Hanni cried at the audit until later. She had only watched the beginning of her speech since she had to leave for a schedule. However, when she came back, she was shocked to see pictures of her crying on the internet.

"I watched the beginning of your speech, but I had a schedule so I couldn’t watch the rest. But later, when I looked it up, I saw tons of photos of you crying. So you cried? I was surprised when I saw that... but in my heart, I was thinking, “That’s my girl ~ That’s my girl~” and I felt so proud," Minji said.

Minji stated that she was happy and proud to see the idol stand up for herself at the National Assembly Audit. Hanni was invited to speak about workplace harassment, following her confession in NewJeans' YouTube livestream regarding the mistreatment and disrespect she received from HYBE Labels' staff members.

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All you need to know about NewJeans Hanni's speech at the National Assembly Audit

On October 15, NewJeans' Hanni attended the National Assembly Environment and Labor Committee’s state audit alongside ADOR CEO Kim Joo-young, who was summoned to the audit. Previously, on September 11, the NewJeans members kicked off an emergency livestream.

During the session, Hanni expressed that she was mistreated by the group's manager when she was getting her makeup and hair done on the fourth floor of HYBE's headquarters. Reportedly, the manager not only failed to greet her back but also asked her fellow staff members to ignore the idol.

The idol talked about this issue during the audit, stating:

"I don’t understand why I must go through this and why that person said something like that in a work environment. This has happened more than once or twice, and if I continue to stay quiet, it will pass and be buried. This could happen to anyone. I decided to attend, hoping current trainees, seniors, juniors, or colleagues would not experience this."

She also talked about how she often felt that NewJeans, as a group, were not respected and mistreated by other HYBE Labels staff members:

"At the beginning of my debut, I met several higher-ups, but they never greeted me when I greeted them. While living in Korea, I understood that you should greet elders well. I thought not greeting them was rude as a person. There was a certain type of atmosphere at the company. It’s hard to say anything, and only people that have been affected could feel it."

Hanni continued:

"I also saw employees badmouthing the group on the Blind app. I even saw the PR team director trying to lower our Japanese debut score. Seeing that, I came to the realization that this wasn’t just a feeling, but I was convinced that the company hated us."

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Regardless, fans have had mixed reactions to the situation. While some fans have supported the idol for standing up for herself, others expressed that the issue was not a good representation of workplace harassment.