Busan Film Festival Responds to Sexual Harassment

[FWN Adm]

Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) has made a further apology and is introducing practical changes in response to an investigation into the sexual harassment case involving former festival director Huh Moonyung, which resulted in the resignation of three top executives and one dismissal last year.

Full statement from the Busan International Film Festival on the result of the Sexual Harassment in the Workplace investigation

On May 31, 2023, the Busan International Film Festival was made aware of the [sexual harassment and assault in the workplace incident] through the media report and received the official report from Deun Deun, The Center for Gender Equality in Korean Cinema, on June 5.

The Busan International Film Festival recognised this case as a 'sexual harassment in the workplace' incident that occurred while the Accused was working at the film festival, and entrusted an external specialised organisation, the Busan Counseling Center Against Sexual Violence – Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault in the Busan Culture and Art Industry (hereinafter referred to as 'Counseling Center'), for an objective and professional investigation.

Following the case investigation and processing procedure, the Counseling Center formed an investigation committee and deliberation committee to conduct the appropriate investigation and deliberation. The investigation committee members included law firm attorneys and labour attorneys from labour corporations. However, the Accused requested the investigation agency be changed to a law firm or labour corporation for guaranteed expertise and objectivity, and did not respond to several recommendations for investigation. Due to such circumstances, the investigation was conducted on the Accuser and the witness[es].

The Accuser expressed their willingness to change the investigation agency and cooperate with the subsequent reinvestigation in response to the Accused's continued refusal to be investigated, but that also did not come to pass due to the Accused's refusal.

The investigation committee of this case concluded that it [constitutes sexual harassment in the workplace] on the basis of the Accuser's specific and consistent statements, and in December 2023, the Busan International Film Festival was notified of the investigation committee's result, a [serious incident of sexual harassment in the workplace].

After the incident, the Busan International Film Festival conducted a thorough investigation on all employees and took preventative measures through gender equality campaigns and in-depth education for gender sensitivity; and will continue to improve the internal organisational culture to ensure that similar cases do not occur in the future.

In order to achieve this:

First, the Busan International Film Festival will revise the Articles of Incorporation and strengthen the responsibilities and qualifications of the executives to ensure that there are no blind spots in the prevention of sexual harassment, and revised the Regulations on Prevention of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace to advance the reporting and counselling process for sexual harassment in the workplace.

Second, in the event of such an incident, we will do our best to protect the victims by supplementing regulations that provide a protection network and prevent secondary damage.

Third, in order to ensure an equal organisational culture for all genders and responsible processing of a case, we will designate a specialised organisation and mandate grievance counsellors to receive specialised training.

Fourth, we will strengthen practical education for the prevention of sexual harassment and assault for the secretariat according to executive and rank.

We sincerely apologise to the victim that such an incident has occurred in the workplace, a place that should be safe and where gender equality should be upheld. We would also like to apologise once again for the shortcomings in protecting the victim and conducting the initial investigation procedures.

And we apologise to the employees of the Busan International Film Festival and everybody who has supported the Busan International Film Festival for causing disappointment and concern.