OhKpop stars celebrity news and gossip

• [FULL STORY] Hwayoung's departure from T-ara: the full recap
• Core Contents Media announces, "Hwayoung's contract has been terminated, now a free agent"
• Core Contents Media announces, "Hwayoung's contract has been terminated, now a free agent"
• [UPDATE] Core Contents Media announces, "Hwayoung's contract has been terminated, now a free agent"
• Members of T-aras anti-cafe are geometrically increasing in number

Core Contents Media’s (hereby referred to as CCM) CEO announced shocking news through a press release regarding their popular girl group T-ara a few days ago. CEO Kim Kwangsoo shocked many T-ara fans after stating that he had terminated T-ara member Hwayoung’s contract in order to keep her protected from her rumored “bullying” situation and her supercilious behavior to their staff.

In this editorial, we will recap the current T-ara controversy from the initial accusations all the way to T-ara’s current status and their plans for the future.

Due to the lengthy report, the article has been divided into parts and an index has been provided for easy reading.

TIMELINE:
2011 Reports: Leader Eunjung getting bullied?
Reports of T-ara bullying Hwayoung rise
T-ara members leave controversial tweets, Hwayoung and Hyoyoung’s tweets
CCM’s CEO Kim Kwangsoo to make official announcement on July 30th
Netizens uncover evidence of T-ara bullying Hwayoung
Netizens demand Eunjung be pulled from drama and variety shows
CCM’s CEO Kim Kwangsoo announces Hwayoung’s contract termination and leave from T-ara
Read the full press release here
T-Jinyo, “We want the truth from T-ara,” opens; T-ara’s cafe loses a large amount of members
Netizens petition for T-ara to disband
Celebrities and PDs react to scandal
Backup dancer, trainee, and staff member speak up on Hwayoung being bullied
CCM responds to accusatory posts by backup dancer and CCM trainee
T-ara’s advertisement contracts in jeopardy
Rising demands for Eunjung, Soyeon, and Hyomin to be removed from their drama roles
CEO Kim Kwangsoo’s explanation, possibility of Hwayoung rejoining
Eunjung admits to bullying and apologizes?
T-ara’s largest fansite to shut down on August 15th
Future plans for T-ara
Hwayoung apologizes on Twitter, reconciles with CEO Kim Kwangsoo
Hwayoung and Hyoyoung visit Maru Entertainment

[2011 REPORTS; LEADER EUNJUNG GETTING BULLIED?]
Bullying within idol groups is not unheard of, and T-ara is only one of the many K-Pop groups who have suffered from bullying accusations. For example, in 2011, popular girl group KARA was on the verge of breaking up after four of its members (sans Park Gyuri) was reported to have issued a termination notice of their exclusive contract with DSP Media.

This resulted in netizens questioning whether Park Gyuri had been bullied by Seungyeon, which brought netizens to then wonder if T-ara’s Eunjung had also been bullied in her group. Just a month before this report by the Korean news media, Hwayoung had been added to T-ara and the leadership role was handed over to Boram.

In the report, Eunjung refuted the bullying rumors, saying, “When these member controversies and bullying rumors started spreading around, we all just said ‘huh?’ and laughed about it.” [1]

Eunjung is not the only member in T-ara that was reportedly being “bullied.” In the past, reports stating that Soyeon and Boram were bullied also surfaced. [2]

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