The Roh Moo-hyun Foundation expressed strong regret over a controversy involving an expression mocking the late former President Roh Moo-hyun that appeared in a video on the Lotte Giants' official YouTube channel, urging the baseball club to conduct a transparent investigation and establish measures to prevent recurrence.
The foundation issued an official statement Tuesday saying, "We express deep regret over this incident, in which a hateful term used by a specific online community was used without filtering on the official channel of a professional sports club with significant public influence."
The controversy began with a game highlight video uploaded Sunday to "Giants TV," the Lotte Giants' official YouTube channel. The video captured the team's victory over the KIA Tigers in Busan the previous day. The issue centered on a caption reading "endless applause" inserted over footage showing the back of Lotte infielder Noh Jin-hyuk.
Critics pointed out that the combination of "Noh"—the player's surname displayed on the back of his uniform—and the caption "endless applause" evoked an expression used by far-right online communities to demean the former president.
In response, the Giants apologized, saying, "The expression was used without fully recognizing its potential associations during the filming and editing process, and the scene was deleted immediately upon confirmation. We will inspect our content more thoroughly to prevent similar incidents from recurring."
However, the Roh Moo-hyun Foundation said the matter could not be dismissed as a simple mistake. "Considering that this came immediately after a game against a team based in Gwangju and just ahead of the anniversary of the May 18 Democratic Uprising and the date of President Roh Moo-hyun's passing on May 23, this cannot be brushed aside as a simple mistake. Many citizens have already been deeply hurt by this," the foundation stressed.
"Sports should be a venue for peace and harmony where people respect each other even amid fierce competition," the foundation added. "Mockery and hatred directed at anyone should never again be excused as 'fun' or a 'mistake.'"
The foundation also demanded that the Giants transparently disclose the circumstances of the incident and the results of its internal investigation. It further called for a review of the entire content production and review system, measures to prevent recurrence, and disclosure of disciplinary actions against those responsible.
Regarding the matter, the Lotte club said, "We met with the foundation to explain the circumstances and offered an apology regardless of the reason."
"It has been confirmed that the agency employee who added the caption has left the company," the club added. "The club will also work to prevent similar incidents from recurring through second and third rounds of review."
