A Man Grabbed This Spanish Woman Reporter’s Butt While She Was On Live TV And People Are Furious
Spanish journalist Isa Balado was groped by a man while she was reporting live on TV, prompting outrage in the country against gender violence.
An incident where a Spanish journalist was groped by a man while she was reporting live on TV has prompted outrage in the country against gender violence.
Isa Balado was reporting on a store robbery in the capital, Madrid, for the Spanish news program ‘En boca de todos’, on Tuesday, Sep. 12, when a man approached her from behind and grabbed her butt.
“What channel are you from?” the man, wearing black sunglasses and a jacket, said.
Balado tried to remain professional and pushed the man away.
However, the TV station’s news anchor, Nacho Abad, then interrupted Balado and asked, “Sorry Isa for interrupting… But did he just touch your butt?”
“Yes,” Balado confirmed with an apparent uncomfortable expression.
Abad then demanded the cameraman and Balado to put the “stupid guy” back on.
Balado then confronts the man, saying, “As much as you want to ask what channel we are from, do you really have to touch my butt? I’m doing a live report and I’m working.”
“I haven’t touched your butt,” the man denied.
Balado then asked the man to leave, but as he walks away, he rubs her hair.
Later, Balado said that it was an “unpleasant” experience and that she could see the man bothering every lady he saw.
“I prefer not to give him any screen time, if it’s okay I’ll rather just [cut],” Balado said to the TV host when the man approached her once again.
The police have since detained the man, according to a post published on their social media.
🚩Detenido por agredir sexualmente a una reportera mientras estaba realizando un directo de televisión #Madrid pic.twitter.com/vKkBjNXJve
— Policía Nacional (@policia) September 12, 2023
Hundreds of people, including Spain’s equality minister Irene Montero, have expressed their support for Balado and condemned the man’s conduct on social media.
“Non-consensual touching is sexual violence and we say enough to impunity. All my support to Isa Balado. Only yes is yes,” Montero wrote on Twitter.
Others on social media have criticized the media group, MediaSet, for keeping Balado on the scene, waiting for her to bump into her aggressor.
“MediaSet, instead of removing Isa Balado from the area after being attacked by a foreign man, orders her to stay there to meet her attacker again,” a person wrote on Twitter.
Under Spain’s new “only yes means yes law”, which passed on August 2022, street harassment that leads to humiliation, hostility or intimidation of a person will be penalized.
