The police received a case related to the sexual harassment of a child on MBC-TV’s “Marriage Hell.” The news has been trending in South Korea and has caused a huge public outcry.
On December 21, Iksan Police Station said in a phone call to Dispatch, “The case was filed by the Iksan Police Station’s Yeocheong Power Team regarding the ‘Marriage Hell’ today.”
NOTE: C/W
The police believed that the contents of the broadcast were suspected of sexual abuse against children. The case will be transferred to the specific department that deals with such cases and it will be investigated.
“Marriage Hell” aired its 20th episode on December 19. It introduced the story of a remarried couple. The couple, who had been married for two years, was living with a 7-year-old child of the wife born in her previous marriage.
The problem with the broadcast was the husband’s behavior. In the scene of playing with her stepdaughter, the husband made excessive physical contact that the child did not want.
The child expressed strongly, “No,” and “Don’t do it.” However, the new father refused to let the child go because he found her reaction funny.
Viewers criticized the scene claiming it was child molestation. The production team, which broadcast the episode without editing the scene and not recognizing the problem, was also pointed out and heavily criticized.
Dr. Oh Eun Young also could not avoid criticism. Even though she is a doctor and an expert in providing solutions, she did not strongly point out this. She’s currently receiving a lot of backlash due to this.
Currently, the scene in question has been deleted from the OTT replay service. The MBC bulletin board was plastered with petitions to abolish “Marriage Hell.” MBC has since issued a public lengthy apology admitting they’ve made a huge mistake. MBC said,
We apologize for the “Marriage Hell” broadcast on December 19. To all of you who watched the “Marriage Hell” episode and were worried about the couple’s daughter, we deeply apologize.
We should have immediately conveyed the production team’s position to all of our viewers after the controversy, but it took time to understand the situation and positions of the participants after the broadcast. During this process, in order to prevent the video from being edited and distributed contrary to the intention of the production team and causing harm to the family of the participants, we had no choice but to modify the video first. We ask for your understanding.
The episode was designed with the intention of finding the cause of the conflicts that occurred as a husband who decided to love his wife and even her wounds, and the wife’s premarital daughter, and how they worked to establish a household together. The wife had reported her husband to the police for child abuse and the husband was unable to accept such action by his wife, causing deep conflicts. In this regard, the production team carefully observed the life of the family and provided solutions through professional analysis on “who” and “how” to change in order to provide practical assistance.
However, in this process, we failed to carefully consider the possibility that scenes that viewers might worry about would be broadcast while focusing only on the analysis of the couple’s problems. After the broadcast, we received criticism for the subsequent program and judged that there was no room for an excuse. We deeply apologize once again for not thinking again from the perspective of the child and causing concern to many of you. Furthermore, our production team and Dr. Oeun Yeong will continue to support this family and the child even after the broadcast. With the possibility that the child may have emotional difficulties in mind, we plan to provide professional testing and therapeutic assistance with Dr. Oh Eun Young .
Throughout the approximately 5-hour recording, Dr. Oh Eun Young specifically pointed out and harshly criticized the husband’s actions, urging for change. However, this content was heavily edited and concentrated towards the end, giving the impression that the doctor and MCs were sympathetic towards the husband’s actions. This was a mistake on the part of the production team. In the future, we will be more careful to ensure that the atmosphere at the actual recording site is accurately conveyed to our viewers.
What do you think of this?
