NOC says bullying allegations about co-founder Sylvia Chan a 'crusade' against reputation

Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) has responded to allegations against its co-founder Sylvia Chan (pictured left), claiming that they are "a massive crusade" against the public image and reputation of NOC and its employees. In an Instagram post, it also claimed that the "present attacks" have been "carefully crafted and mounted" on the company and its employees.

"As with any fast-paced organisation which embraces innovation, the inevitable discourse in expectations will create rifts that are sometimes irreconcilable. In NOC, we have always endeavoured to accept and appreciate these differences to allow us to glean valuable perspectives on various matters," NOC said, adding that the narrative "fed" to netizens on social media had a sole purpose, which was "to harm the good name of NOC".

The company claimed that the excerpts published were "cherry-picked abstract communications between private individuals carefully showcased to paint a wholly negative picture". "We are advised that there have been serious breaches of the privacy laws and those responsible will be investigated by the authorities," the statement added.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CU4iuvsJR1v/

According to NOC, it has persevered to create a safe environment for its artistes and employees to express themselves in a creative and responsible manner to charter new frontiers in the media industry. It also explained that its artistes and employees have equal access to the tools for success while learning and growing with them.

NOC also stressed in the statement that it aspires to groom reliable and responsible talent and taking a neutral and open approach has been imperative. "Whenever efforts to maintain our standards may have fallen short, we did not give up on our teammates nor did we take the easy way out by replacing them. We have guided our artistes and employees to ensure their chance at success, and we will not stand for our good efforts to be blemished by banal allegations," NOC said.

The company added that the "malicious attacks" have misled its artistes, employees, clients, partners and viewers by offering "a biased, traversed and mosaicked factual matrix". NOC also explained that it neither stigmatises nor oppresses those with mental health issues but instead, works tirelessly to ensure that those who have raised concerns about their mental health to the company will have access to company-sponsored mental therapy services provided.

"We will continue to welcome any constructive feedback to create a better atmosphere for all of us. However, we will not stand for the spirit and soul of our company to be defeated by traversed and malicious attacks by faceless individuals," NOC said. The matter is currently being reviewed by NOC's lawyers and the company added that it will not "stoop to the level of [its] malicious attacks" in offering the counter facts of the allegations. The reason being, such information may be damaging and/or embarrassing to those involved.

"We are thoroughly confident that NOC will emerge stronger, together. In the meantime, we will vigorously pursue our legal avenues to achieve justice for our NOC team," it said. The Instagram post has since garnered more than 17k likes at the time of writing and several netizens were unimpressed and disappointed. Several pointed out that the allegations were against Chan herself and not NOC, and called her out for playing the victim card. Some also criticised her for hiding behind NOC's account instead of issuing an apology.

Chan came under the spotlight recently after being accused of bullying employees and using slurs. She was alleged to have been openly discriminatory to an employee named Samantha. An audio recording circulating online with accompanying screenshots on an Instagram account named sgcickenrice revealed Chan saying "that b*tch is f*cking dumb", when talking about Samantha. The account also showed screenshots of Chan being unwilling to correspond with influencers directly as they are "stupid", which she then corrected to "not so smart". Some netizens defended NOC previously, explaining that the public should not show their hate for NOC as a whole because of "one or two people". Colgate has also terminated its partnership with her while MILO clarified that it is currently not working with Chan on any projects.

A check by MARKETING-INTERACTIVE found that sgcickenrice has since removed majority of its posts, save for an audio recording of Chan planning an exit strategy for Samantha and calling her "f*cking dumb". It also received a cease and desist letter concerning allegations and claims against Chan as well as NOC's artistes and employees.

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Colgate and MILO distance from NOC co-founder Sylvia Chan post bullying claims