Thirty-thousand fans of girl group NewJeans, known as Bunnies, signed a petition asking a Seoul court to dismiss the injunction case between the singers and agency ADOR, arguing that the artists will be exposed to a "hostile environment" should they return to the HYBE umbrella.

Team Bunnies, a coalition of NewJeans' fan club Bunnies members speaking out against ADOR, said in a statement that it handed in the petition signed by 30,000 fans from inside and outside of Korea on Wednesday to the Seoul Central District Court. The team began taking signatures for the petition from Feb. 24.


"We support the members' termination of their exclusive contracts," read the fans' statement.

"Should they be forced to continue their activities with a company with whom their trust has been destroyed, then it would only prolong the members' agony to continue working in a hostile environment, and neither the artists nor the fans would be able to enjoy their activities in the future."

"We do not wish for their musical career to halt due to outside factors. We ask the court turn down ADOR's injunction on the members' activities so that they may continue in a safe and happy environment with people who the members can trust."

The statement comes five days after the members on Friday attended a hearing on the injunction filed by ADOR in person. ADOR filed for an injunction against NewJeans' members after the five singers held a press conference in November arguing that their contracts were terminated because ADOR failed to protect them as their agency.

The girl group members announced last month that they will now be called NJZ. They will hold their "debut" performance on March 23.

BY YOON SO-YEON [yoon.soyeon@joongang.co.kr]