Lee Haein Reveals Mnet’s Lack Of Basic Human Rights During “Idol School” and False Promises They Made To Her

Idol School contestant Lee Haein has revealed through her personal Instagram many of the wrongdoings that Mnet did during Idol School, including changing the contest format and poor treatment of the girls.

She started off by saying how she has been hesitating over making a statement following her father’s public outcry over the results of the show.

Hello, this is Lee Haein.

I have been hesitating for a while about how I could tell my story and how to conduct myself over this, and also ,because I don’t have a agency, how I could make a statement, but I have decided to make this post.

It was not a good situation so I didn’t want to talk about it anymore because my heart hurt, but I also don’t want my matters to be told through my father or other anyone else, so I wanted to tell you the truth as it is. I think there is some exaggeration and some secondary interpretation that was made known through the media.

— Lee Haein

She did say that she is not sure whether or not there was manipulation by Mnet.

In reality, I don’t know if there is any way to know if there was manipulation or not. I also don’t know if that part is actually an important part of my life or not. Throughout the years, I have felt that life just isn’t fair to people, and even though the time was short, the fact that I was able to meet the fans that supported me was like luck.

I just had the thoughts of how I couldn’t grab onto my opportunity with Idol School. I think the truth will be revealed through the police investigation.

— Lee Haein

Lee Haein then commented about the rumors about the controversial 3,000 person audition.

As for the controversial 3,000 person audition, it is true we were originally told not to attend it. If you (Mnet) want to say that everyone was present at the auditions, I’d like to ask you to release the videos for the first round of auditions.

The date for the broadcast of the first episode and the date that we first started training camp and dorming together were clearly different.

I will tell you about the things I know, the facts, and leave out the things that I thought happened during the filming of the program.

— Lee Haein

She first started by explaining how the rules of the competition were suddenly changed in Episode 5, and how some scenes were fabricated.

While we were preparing for our “Mr. Mr.” stage, I was preparing for a position battle just like from Produce 101, where they pick the number 1 trainee from each team, but on the day of the competition, they suddenly changed the rules so it was not a battle within each team, but instead just one team versus another team.

During the competition, another team performed “Catallena” for their live dance position performance, and their opponents just lip-synced their performance. For the final live broadcast mission, I auditioned for a part in the songs, and the producers who eliminated me just told me they were opposed to me, and said sorry.

There were times when we filmed without any music playing in the background, and they told us to just go with a rhythm and say the song was good anyway. They told us to just laugh in the background. We filmed like we were filming a drama scene.

— Lee Haein

She then talked about the suspected contracts that some trainees signed with CJ ENM prior to the show starting and how she felt like she wouldn’t make it in the debut group.

The number of trainees who received contracts during the filming was not all of them like the article said, but out of the 41 trainees, only some of them got contracts. If you (Mnet) really insist that everyone signed a contract, then you can disclose the details of the contracts with the bank account deposits for them.

On the last day of Idol School when I was eliminated, up until the day before, I thought I would be making my debut, but after calming down a particular trainee who didn’t want to do the final episode, I thought I would not make it into the final lineup. You never know, but I did prepare my elimination speech.

That next day, after preparing for my performance, I went up onto the stage thinking that that would be the last performance of my life.

As I had thought, I was eliminated in 11th place.

I wanted to ask the staff member who gave me the mic (when I was eliminated) ‘why did you make 11th place give a comment after being eliminated when you didn’t have 10th place make one? When you are selecting only up to 9th place for the program group.’

I want to know what you were thinking when you took a two shot with me and (Park Jiwon), when you know that we were both already on a survival program before.

— Lee Haein

She then commented about how the trainees on the show weren’t able to live like proper teenagers during their time dorming at the Gyeonggi English Village Yangpyeong Camp.

As it was revealed in the news recently, we entered the Gyeonggi English Village Yangpyeong Camp in May and we were not let outside the Camp once, until the last day. I think it is because we didn’t have an agency to protect us, as the system was not like Produce 101, where our phones were confiscated but the dorming system was different.

I could only buy necessary items from Olive Young once a month, and I couldn’t eat anything unless it was meal time. There were friends who missed time because they were sleeping because they were tired, or because they were sick for various reasons, even though there is a cafeteria in the Camp.

— Lee Haein

Because of the limitations on leaving the camp and even going to the mart, many trainees suffered and had to go to through great lengths to curb their hunger.

So there were friends who would go to school once or twice a month, like was reported in the news articles. And when they came back, they would hide food in their clothes. But even that was taken away by the staff after they were searched.

You can feel the temperature difference in Yangpyeong compared to Seoul, it is colder. As the filming got towards the final stages, many of the friends were bringing up that they were getting cold, and they continued to protest about it, so in the end, they were allowed to get a package from their parents.

Isn’t it this all just because we couldn’t eat and were a bit cold? When the staff ordered food and snacks, we secretly would take back the leftovers and eat those. We filmed the show without any human rights.

With most of the cast being minors, they didn’t follow the allowed times for filming and the studio didn’t have a single window. Every day, my skin was getting worse. I felt there was something lacking when we moved to a different dorm, only after forcing the production team to do something by nagging and arguing. Nothing would change if we didn’t say something.

We weren’t able to choose to go a hospital either. I know that this is all because there were not enough managers to control this many people. But I don’t think it changes the fact that they failed to provide a sense of comfort.

For 5 months, we filmed around the clock without any sense of time, and we didn’t even have any rights. We didn’t get paid, and we were locked in and confined in the camp. If people say that we wanted to do something like that, I really have no response to those people. I believe that even if you joined a company or something if you wanted to or because of a job, you shouldn’t have to be forced to deal with unfair practices.

— Lee Haein

She revealed that she wanted her contract terminated the day after her elimination, but was roped into staying with them due to false promises.

After the final live broadcast ended, I didn’t even want to see my parents or go to the final party. I met with the trainers alone to calm myself down. I had nothing to say to the production staff who came to me asking why I was crying on the floor.

I asked CJ ENM to terminate my contract the day after I was eliminated, and asked them to tell me the truth about the manipulation controversy. But they told me ‘But aren’t you at the top of the realtime search rankings’ and ‘you are the real winner here.’ I told them I didn’t want to be in a group anymore, but they promised that they would make a new group for me.

They asked me what programs I wanted to appear on, and they said they would let me appear on the various dramas and other things that I was personally contacted about. They promised that they would never leave me alone in the practice room, and let me promote on my own while I was still preparing to debut in a new group. Later on, when I was with the trainees who haven’t trained very long, they told me ‘The only person that is guaranteed to debut is Haein, if the rest of [the trainees] aren’t prepared, Haein will debut solo.’

— Lee Haein

Following this, CJ ENM then told her she had to prepare for MAMA as a back dancer, and this would cause her debut to be delayed even further.

Right after this, they told me that I had to prepare to be at MAMA as a back dancer. They told me to delay my debut a little bit. But after MAMA, they said the timing wouldn’t be right and my image was used up. As the oldest member and the leader in the group I was preparing to debut in, I had to focus on practicing so the other members would follow suit. I spent that time relying on my group mates for strength.

In that time, I saw articles about Produce 48, and asked to join that show, but they stopped me, saying that it would be better if I didn’t participate. So I just spent time practicing alone at the company. I looked forward to debuting in October that year.

— Lee Haein

She ended by explaining that she was forced to sign an artist contract when she was a trainee, and the unfair treatment CJ ENM gave her during her attempts to terminate her contract.

Trainees sign trainee contracts and artists sign artist contracts. For artist contracts, they come with a deposit fee and both sides of the contract need to fulfill the terms faithfully. If I was going to be a trainee for the length of my contract, I don’t know why I was forced to sign an artist contract. The only promotions I received were a radio show and going to fashion week once. If they want to say that they gave me activities, I don’t know how to respond to that.

When I said I didn’t want to do it, they grabbed onto me and tried to convince me to stay. When my promised debut date of October passed by, it was financially difficult for me to continue, and I asked for my contract to be terminated. None of the directors or executives would meet with me. I did not want to leave the company entirely, but for an explanation of the direction they wanted for me, even if it wasn’t concrete. The debut project that we discussed when I signed the contract was all but gone, so I wanted to know what the new direction they had planned was. But they said there was nothing, and I couldn’t even promote as an actress. I decided that I couldn’t fulfill my contractual obligations, so I asked for their agreement in cancelling.

This was back in February, but the document with the cancellation of the contract says April 30. However, I didn’t receive the document until months later, in the summer. This is the actual post-it that was stuck on top of the cancellation papers. I can’t hide my disappointment of all my years in this company being summed up in one post-it note. I didn’t want to say anything, I know I only have things to lose, but if I don’t speak up, there will be even more misunderstandings and I would regret it later in the future. I am just recording down the facts. I’m sorry I’m writing these bad news.

Just like me, some of the trainees who did sign contracts were eliminated, and some who didn’t sign contracts did debut. I don’t think the mere fact that there was a contract can be evidence of manipulation. But no one will know for certain, as the trainees can only really talk about what they know. We don’t know if certain trainees were confirmed to debut even before the show started. I just know that out of the 3,000 trainees that auditioned, not all of the 41 trainees on the show were actually part of the competition to join the final group.

I hope there are no misunderstandings.

— Lee Haein

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