Hong Jin Young's label releases official statement on allegations she plagiarized master's thesis

Hong Jin Young's label has released an official statement on allegations she plagiarized master's thesis.

As previously reported, 74% of the content of her 2009 master's thesis when she was a student at Chosun University was detected as identical to other sources online. Her thesis was approved in May of 2009, and she debuted with "Love Battery" in June of the same year.

On November 5, her label IMH Entertainment stated, "Hong Jin Young faithfully participated in the research and writing process of her master's thesis on the 'Study on the Trends of Cultural Content Industry through the Korean Wave' in the 'Department of Trade' at Chosun University. Regarding the allegation that the plagiarism rate raised in today's article exceeded 74%, we would like to convey the opinion of the professor, who was in charge of reviewing Hong Jin Young's master's thesis at the time."

The label continued, "According to the professor in question, Hong Jin Young was reviewed for a master's thesis in 2009, which was a time when she was able to pass the thesis screening with a lot of quotes and references. The copy-killer system has been mandatory in universities in 2015, and it was initiated to filter out more than 50% of plagiarism. In 2009, the plagiarism rate was high when the system was not in place."

IMH Entertainment concluded, "We once again confirmed with the artist herself that she did not plagiarize the research content at all other than the cited content and references in the paper, conveying the opinion that there may be a misunderstanding but not plagiarism."

Hong Jin Young's alleged plagiarism of her thesis also coincides in 2014 when a corruption scandal broke out at Chosun University. Hong Jin Young's father Hong Geum Woo is a professor at Chosun University, which has also led to further speculation about the acceptance of her master's thesis.