`Actresses Pressured to Give Sexual Favors`

"To work in (the entertainment) industry, you should know how the world and men are.”

This is what an entertainment agency president told an aspiring actress in her mid-20 when he took her to a motel.

Another actress in her mid-40s said, “I was offered a so-called sponsorship by a broker who mediates between advertisers and models. The broker said he would give me as much money as I wanted, but I refused.”

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea released Tuesday a report on the human rights situation for actresses based on a survey of 111 actresses and 240 aspirants conducted from September to December last year.

The report said 60.2 percent of the respondents claimed that entertainment companies or their acquaintances told them to have sex with influential figures. The figures included 25 wealthy people (43.9 percent), 22 producers (38.6 percent), 13 production company presidents (22.8 percent), nine businessmen (15.8 percent), eight advertising executives (14 percent), seven broadcast network executives (12.3 percent), seven entertainment company CEOs (12.3 percent), and five politicians and public officials (8.8 percent).

The report also said 6.5 percent of the respondents alleged being raped by figures related to entertainment companies and producers, with 31.5 percent saying they were sexually harassed. Almost half of them (48.4 percent) said they were put at a disadvantage in casting and advertising contracts if they refused to have sex.

More than half of the actresses (55 percent) said they received assistance from the influential figures and rich men in return for sexual favors.

An aspiring actress in her early 20s said, “A man who was my father’s age told me, ‘If you become my lover, I’ll give you everything you want. I’ll buy your youth.’”

The commission said, “Financially-strapped entertainment companies tend to maintain their operations through such sponsorships.”

“A law should be enacted to strictly set qualifications for entertainment businesses and an association of entertainers is needed to provide counseling, mentoring and education on human rights.”