King The Land Controversy: Producers Release Official Apology; Arab Viewers Demand Scene Deletion

King The Land production team has released an official apology through the official Instagram page of JTBC. Although the producers shared that they would like to sincerely apologize for causing unnecessary inconvenience to the viewers, the Arab followers of the mini-series refused to accept the apology. They demanded the deletion of scenes that portrayed Arab culture the wrong way.

The producers released the apology on Wednesday (July 12). According to the statement, the team had no intention to distort any culture or country through the production process. Their realization of the lack of experience, consideration, and understanding of other cultures helped them to be more careful while creating the content.

The producers promised the viewers that they would do their best to make the content enjoyable for viewers from anywhere in the world. They said a thorough review of the problematic scene would help them to decide to take measures. The production team concluded the statement by promising the viewers about making no inconvenience to them while creating the content.

King The Land poster
Twitter/JTBC

Here is the Complete Statement by King The Land Producers:

We like to express our deep and sincere apology for causing unnecessary inconvenience to our viewers without full consideration of other valued cultures. Although, we have no intention of caricaturing or distorting any particular country or culture in the process. It has been our sharp realization that there has been a lack of understanding, experience, and consideration for other cultures. We will do our best in the future to create content that could be enjoyable to anyone regardless of where they are from and what kind of culture they have.

We will review the part of the video that hurt the viewers and do our best to take the necessary measures. We earnestly promise to our viewers that more care will be taken down the road so that there will be no inconvenience in viewing our content.

However, the Arab viewers refused to accept the apology. They demanded the deletion of the problematic scene in the drama. The followers of this JTBC romantic-comedy drama shared their disagreements on social media and online communities. Here are a few of them:

We will not accept the apology because you do not realize the mistake that affected our image and culture.

We reject this apology. You must delete the scenes and apologize in Arabic.

Don’t accept the apology. The production team must delete the abusive scenes.

Delete the scenes to accept the apology.

I will not support the JTBC series, director, writer, producer, and actors again.

Delete the abusive scenes, apologize in Arabic, and include the apology in the next episode to accept the apology.

We hope you will be more careful and select your scenes more professionally. Please refrain from belittling other cultures because every culture has its respect and appreciation.