Curtain Falls on 'Naked News'

[ashiva.livejournal.com]

The anchorwomen of Naked News appear on a cable TV program in this file photo. Naked News has suspended its services.

Naked News, an online pay-TV channel featuring topless anchorwomen, has collapsed a month after its sensational debut in Korea.

Both its headquarters in Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul, and its Web site, www.nakednews.co.kr, have been shut down.

"From July 31, we suspend all services," a posting read on its homepage. "We are going to pay back subscription fees to all of our customers."

It asked its subscribers to apply for the refunds and promised to pay them back within a month.

Executives of Naked News Korea, the operator of the news program, are reportedly on the run. Its president, John Chau, has reportedly fled to another country.

Anchorwomen of the program claimed that the company has not paid salaries to them and other staff.

Four of the nine anchorwomen filed complaints against top executives of the company with the police and the Ministry of Labor.

"We will fight to the end against Naked News, which cheated us and the people," they said in a joint statement. "John Chau started this business in Korea with the intent to swindle money out of the people.

Most of the profits have been wired to his personal account," one anchorwoman said at a press briefing.

Calling their bosses "swindlers," the anchorwomen claimed the firm had cut their salaries by one fifth.

"We got paid nothing this month," said another anchor, in tears. "They arbitrarily changed contract terms to make it difficult for us to quit the job."

They claimed the company is not a franchise of the Canadian company that has been providing similar services since 1999.

Naked News Korea drew keen attention here since its debut, promoting that its "hot" female anchors would deliver up-to-date news encompassing politics, economy, and social and cultural affairs.

More than one million Internet users visited the Web site in the first week, according to its press release. Of them, it said that about 30,000 subscribed.

Source

Comments

[d-magix.livejournal.com]

Why....would they even sign up for this job?

[finalfantasyo13.livejournal.com]

mte

[labobo93.livejournal.com]

Fail.

LOLZ

[casshanjiahui.livejournal.com]

LOL WTHIAO MAN WHERE GOT SUCH THING.
Never heard of this sorta shit before lolz.
But who watched this ._.
"sensational debut"(?)

[jaejoongxyuno07.livejournal.com]

lol. me too.

[anewsymphony.livejournal.com]

it makes me really sad that a show like this got taken seriously enough to even air for that long. it's just stuff like this that prooves that women are still seen as second-class citizens in Korea, eugh

[polyurethane.livejournal.com]

Swindlers, eh?

I say we send Kurosagi (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KH9Jd66f1CQ&fmt=18) in to teach them a lesson.