JTBC apologizes for giving wrong information about BTS' Suga

According to Osen, at the end of the August 16 broadcast of the news synthesis program "Newsroom" on JTBC, male MC Choi Jae-won officially apologized on behalf of the station for providing inaccurate information in the news about the drunk driving incident of male idol Suga (member of BTS).

Previously, on August 7, just one day after Suga was caught driving an electric scooter while drunk, the Newsroom program exclusively reported CCTV footage that was said to show Suga riding an electric scooter on the street in Yongsan-gu, Seoul.

Newsroom's CCTV footage went viral and sparked a huge controversy, with Suga and his management company Big Hit Music being suspected of lying about the distance traveled.

But when DongA Ilbo released the exact CCTV footage of Suga, Newsroom's video was found to be false. The person in Newsroom's video drove in a different direction than the direction toward the Nine One Hannam apartment complex where Suga lives.

As the controversy grew, JTBC deleted the video posted on its official channel and set the video to private on YouTube.

The problem is that this CCTV video went viral before, causing Suga to face a lot of criticism. Therefore, BTS fans reacted strongly to JTBC, demanding an apology from the station.

Finally, Newsroom directly apologized at the end of the August 16 newscast, MC Choi Jae-won said: “Our Newsroom program reported on BTS member Suga’s drunk driving incident on August 7. At that time, the beginning of the newscast aired CCTV footage of a man riding an electric scooter across the street.

As a result of the police investigation, we have confirmed that the man in the video is not Suga. We sincerely apologize for the confusion.”

However, the exact CCTV footage posted by DongA also exposed Suga to more obvious violations.

According to Dispatch, Suga committed two violations: blood alcohol concentration exceeding the permitted level and driving on the sidewalk.

Suga had a blood alcohol level of 0.227%, the highest among K-pop idols who have committed similar violations. Meanwhile, he claimed that he "only drank 1 glass of beer".

Under current Korean law, alcohol concentration above 0.2% will be punished by imprisonment of 2-5 years or fine of 10-20 million won.

Suga also made a mistake driving on the sidewalk, because his electric scooter is not considered a PM (a vehicle with a speed of less than 25km/h), but is classified as a motorized bicycle under the Road Traffic Act, and it cannot be used on sidewalks or bicycle paths.

Source: https://laodong.vn/giai-tri/dai-jtbc-xin-loi-vi-dua-thong-tin-sai-ve-suga-bts-1380822.ldo