MANILA, Philippines — MLD Entertainment, the agency of Nancy McDonie of K-pop group Momoland, will take legal action against the people behind the leaked pictures of the star taken while she was changing in a dressing room.
According to the agency’s statement, Nancy’s undressing photos were Photoshopped.
“Recently, illegally manipulated photos related to Nancy, who is our agency’s artist, have been spreading online and through social media. Nancy is a victim of a hidden camera picture that was subsequently photoshopped. The priority for protection here is Nancy. Please cooperate with us,” said the statement released yesterday.
“We would like to inform everyone that we will take strong legal action against the illegal photographer and the primary spreads in cooperation with the police and overseas law enforcement agencies. Through our legal representatives, civil and criminal penalties due to violation of the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence Crimes and violation of the Information and Communications Act will be carried out,” it added.
The agency said that Nancy is now suffering from "mental distress" because of the incident.
“Nancy is currently suffering from a great amount of mental distress. We earnestly ask of you. We hope there will be no more malicious posts related to our artist,” the agency said.
“We will continue to make every effort to protect our artists from further damage through continuous monitoring. We will also continue to take strong legal action with no leniency or settlement. Thank you for always loving and supporting our artists. We will continue to do our best to protect them."
Reports said that one of the girl group's staff members allegedly took the leaked photos.
Since their debut in 2016, Momoland has made a series of hits with their songs “Bboom Bboom,” “BAAM,” “I’m So Hot” and “Banana Chacha.” The girls have established themselves as a top K-pop girl group and gained international fame, including in the Philippines.
"Spycams," or cameras hidden in dressing rooms and public comfort rooms of malls and hotels, have been a big problem in South Korea, a South China Morning Post report said.