Amid “Snowdrop” backlash, Koreans filed a petition demanding the Blue House to shut down JTBC and rented out a protest truck
It seems that all of Snowdrop’s plans to appease the audience are only creating more backlash.
On December 23, JTBC reassured the public by affirming that Snowdrop did not distort Korean history and announced that a special episode would be broadcast to clarify the accusations. However, these statements do not alleviate the negative attitude of the public towards the drama, only increasing more outrage instead. Many Korean netizens decided to file a lawsuit against JTBC, and some even submitted a petition to the Blue House asking for JTBC to be cancelled completely.
The petition currently has 25,000 signatures and alleges that the broadcasting station is an anti-constitutional company and demands that JTBC be shut down. According to the petition, Snowdrop misrepresented the history as well as disparaged the pro-democracy movement that took place. It is cited in the latest petition that there is another Blue House petition with over 200,000 signatures asking to ban the continuation of Snowdrop’s broadcast.
Not stopping at that, many netizens have joined hands to arrange a truck protest spread all over Seoul. These protesting trucks claim that this drama is an offense against the victims who have been tortured after being framed as spies because of their participation in the democratization movements. “‘Snowdrop’ is not a fictional drama series, but an insult towards history and the people who have fought for this democratic,” they said.
Seeing such a heated boycott against “Snowdrop”, on Dec 21st, Dispatch has voiced its opinion regarding the reason why this was such a controversial matter. This media agency even used “Crash Landing On You” and “Youth Of May” as perfect examples among dramas series that make use of the historical background. Even though director Jo Hyun Tak and writer Yoo Hyun Mi have affirmed that “Snowdrop” is totally a fictional work, the characters that appear in the drama constantly remind viewers of real historic characters, even some victims of state violence at the time. To them, this drama has boldly described a romantic relationship between a North Korean spy and a South Korean college student with the democratization movements as their background. This dangerous combination is seen as inappropriate one, a history distortion and a 2nd attack towards the victim, they claimed.
Some comments from Korean netizens:
- I will donate to support these protest trucks.
- I signed it too, JTBC is over!
- There are many channels to replace JTBC.
- They are also releasing a drama glorifying the Communist Party after Snowdrop. JTBC needs to be cancelled.
