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Journalism of Courage
An otherwise pleasant and fun fan interaction Tuesday between BTS member Jungkook and ARMY—as the South Korean boy band’s fans are called—turned a little sour after an untoward call left the singer unnerved and the followers enraged.
When he takes the call, there is no one at the other end which scares him. Soon a staff member from BTS’s team arrives and takes the phone away.
As per the translations provided by fan accounts on Twitter, Jungkook makes multiple appeals to those watching the session not to make such prank calls as they can be unnerving.
Jungkook’s discomfort with such calls is not baseless as BTS members, who are arguably the biggest boyband in the world right now, have often faced such instances of stalking and privacy violations in the past.
After the V Live session ended, #LEAVEHIMALONE began trending on Twitter. In the tweets, fans asserted the importance of respecting the privacy of idols and highlighted how many sasaengs or obsessive fans who stalk and chase celebrities have risked the safety of public figures.
Earlier, one of Jungkook’s V Live sessions was interrupted by an unwanted phone call by an obsessive fan. Jungkook had then addressed the issue and said that he blocks such numbers immediately.
During a V Live interaction in 2021, another BTS member V (Kim Taehyung) spoke about how they were compelled to take chartered flights after many people invaded their privacy when they and their staff took regular flights.
