Outrage as Spanish TV reporter is groped live on air while reporting robbery; man arrested

The offender says ‘sorry, do you want to call the police’ and even ruffles her hair while going away.

Spanish TV journalist Isa Balado was groped on live TV while reporting in Madrid.

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A Spanish TV journalist was touched inappropriately by a passerby while she was live on air reporting a robbery in Madrid. The incident sparked public outrage and the man was arrested later.

A video from the broadcaster Cuatro, where Isa Balado works, shows a man wearing white shorts and sunglasses approaching the reporter and appearing to touch her bottom before asking a question.

The man asked Balado what channel she was from. She did not initially confront the man and just told him that they were live on air. However, the presenter in the newsroom, Nacho Abad, asked her if the man had just groped her. She said yes, and encouraged by the presenter, she stood up to the perpetrator.

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The presenter asked Balado to put the “idiot guy” on camera. “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,” Balado said to the man in Spanish.

The offender denied any wrongdoing but when Balado insisted that he had touched her inappropriately, he said “sorry, do you want to call the police?” He even ruffled her hair while going away.

Watch the video below:

An incident where a Spanish journalist was groped by a man while she was reporting live on TV and people are apalled and furious pic.twitter.com/wdqrBA4MrQ

— Warpaint Journal (@WarpaintJournal) September 14, 2023

Spain’s national police later posted on the microblogging platform X that they arrested the man “for
sexually assaulting the reporter while she was doing a live television show”. They also posted a brief video clip of the arrest.

🚩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

The incident has sparked anger in Spain as it came amid a row over former Spanish Football Association president Luis Rubiales’ unsolicited kiss on footballer Jenni Hermoso’s lips after Spain beat England
to win the Women’s World Cup on August 20 in Sydney, Australia.

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Mediaset Espana, which owns the television channel, said in a statement as reported by The Independent: “We fully support Isa Balado, reporter for En Boca de Todos, after the absolutely intolerable situation she has suffered today.”

Lo que hasta ahora era “normal” ya no lo es. #SeAcabó es el grito de nuestro país para garantizar el derecho a la libertad sexual de todas las mujeres. Los tocamientos no consentidos son violencia sexual y decimos basta a la impunidad. Todo mi apoyo a @IsaBalado. Solo sí es sí

— Irene Montero (@IreneMontero) September 12, 2023

Irene Mantero, Spain’s acting equality minister, also commented on the incident. “What until now was ‘normal’ is no longer so. Non-consensual touching is sexual violence and we say enough to impunity,” she wrote on X, formerly Twitter.