Authorities in Madrid arrested a man this week after he touched a reporter’s buttocks while she was in the middle of a live broadcast, according to Spanish police.
Isa Balado was reporting on a robbery in Madrid for the Cuatro channel on Tuesday when the suspect approached her from behind and touched her bottom, a video of the incident showed.
In two social media posts, Spain’s Policía Nacional confirmed an arrest.
In a Tuesday post on X, Formerly known as Twitter, police released a short video showing two officers escorting a handcuffed man. The post read in Spanish: Imprisoned for sexually assaulting a reporter during a live television broadcast.
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In another post on the police Facebook page, they showed a photo of Balado and the suspect, as well as a link to the video of the man’s arrest and to a video showing the reporter being attacked during the broadcast.
In a caption for the Facebook post, police said the man was arrested minutes after sexually assaulting the reporter while she was on a live broadcast.
In the video of the incident, the man asks Balado which TV station she worked for after groping her.
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Balado told the man she was on a live broadcast and tried to continue working, but host Nacho Abad insisted on putting him on camera. She did so, confronted him and told him she was in office.
Video of the incident also shows the man denying that he touched the reporter’s butt, but Balado told him that was the case. As he walked away, the man touched Balado’s head, video shows.
Mediaset Espana, which owns Cuatro, said it “categorically rejects any form of harassment or aggression.” We fully support Isa Balado, reporter of En boca de todos, after the absolutely unbearable situation she suffered today.”
The incident was condemned by national politicians, with Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz blaming a culture of “machismo,” or aggressive masculinity.
“It is machismo that causes journalists to suffer such sexual assaults, and the attackers show no remorse on camera,” she wrote on X.
Equality Minister Irene Montero said on
The furor over the groping comes in the wake of the Spanish World Cup kissing scandal, in which football association president Luis Rubiales gave player Jenni Hermoso a non-consensual kiss after her team won the championship last month. The scandal led to Rubiales resigning amid an assault investigation and sparked a national debate about sexism and inequality in Spain.
Antonio Planas
Doha Madani contributed to this.