MBC‘s ‘The Call You’re Dialing Now’, which recently ended amid much buzz, has received a warning from the Korea Communications Standards Commission.

On the 20th, the Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCC) held a plenary session at the Mokdong Broadcast Center in Seoul and voted on legal sanctions, etc. for 39 cases including ‘The Call You‘re Dialing Now’.

‘The Call You’re Dialing Now’ was embroiled in a controversy over sign language trivialization in the first episode. While Hong Hee-joo (Chae Soo-bin), a sign language interpreter in the drama, was interpreting the news and while signing the ‘mountain (山)’ of ‘landslide’, a broadcast error occurred, and a scene was aired in which she appeared to repeatedly raise her middle finger.

Viewers poured out protests regarding this. The viewer said, “It is not right for a non-disabled person to insult and belittle the sign language, a means of communication for the hearing impaired, in this way,” and pointed out that this trivializes the deaf and sign language.

The production team said, “We apologize for causing concern with some of the sign language scenes. The production team said, “We take seriously the criticism that ‘The Call You Just Made’ inappropriately handled sign language, resulting in the trivialization of the deaf and Korean sign language.”

They went on to say, “The show was planned with the important theme of ‘communication’ between people, and there was absolutely no intention to trivialize or mock sign language, which is a valuable communication tool for the deaf,” and apologized for their failure to carefully examine the matter, promising to prevent a recurrence.

Meanwhile, the Korea Communications Standards Commission also issued a warning regarding ‘The Call You Just Made’, as well as KBS 2TV’s ‘Dogs Are Amazing’, stating, “They broadcast content that could cause discomfort to viewers by reminding them of the shock of the incident by using footage of a companion dog slaughter incident.”

SBS’s ‘Running Man’, MBC’s ‘What Do You Do When You Play?’, KBS 2TV’s ‘2 Days & 1 Night’, etc. Recommended action was taken.


Reporter Lee Jeong-yeon annjoy@donga.com

This article is automatically translated using Google AI. If you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know at allkstar@donga.com.