Newly released audio recordings have shed light on the alleged workplace bullying faced by late weathercaster Oh Yoanna, who passed away last year.
BBC News Korea on September 16th published a video in which Oh Yoanna’s mother revealed audio and detailed how her daughter endured harassment from senior colleagues at MBC.
Her mother, now staging a hunger protest outside her daughter’s memorial, said: “It’s been nearly a year since Yoanna left us, yet no one has taken responsibility. To honor my child’s memory, I’ve begun this protest.” She recalled receiving a phone call from Yoanna just six months after joining the network: “She cried for 30 minutes straight, saying a senior colleague was tormenting her—mocking her for wearing a miniskirt, asking if she wanted to show off her thighs, and labeling her rude. They turned the workplace into a pack mentality, making it impossible for her to function.”
The breaking point, her mother added, came when Oh was selected to appear on tvN’s talk show You Quiz on the Block. “Her seniors were furious, saying, ‘Why would you be on ‘You Quiz’? You haven’t even been here a year—why are you representing MBC?’ That night she called me again, sobbing until her face was swollen. She was always saying she felt tired, worn down.”
In the audio, Yoanna herself can be heard weeping to her mother: “Am I really that awful? They say I’m arrogant, and that everything has to be my fault.” Another clip captures Colleague D berating her: “Do you think you’re so great? Am I beneath you? Do you think you’re my friend? Want to argue with me right now?”
Yoanna’s mother is demanding the network release the findings of its internal investigation and implement structural reforms. “The Labor Ministry itself said harassment occurred, yet MBC denies everything. This is the company’s failure,” she said. “Weathercasters are treated as freelancers even though they work like staff, thrown into constant competition. If one rises, the others want to crush her. Yoanna suffered in that system. If they were made full employees, this wouldn’t happen. I don’t want a second or third Yoanna.”
Colleague D, accused of harassment, has denied wrongdoing in court, insisting their relationship remained good and rejecting claims of a link to her death.
>> Oh Yoanna’s Medical Records Reveal Severe Facial Injury Before Her Passing at 28
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