This is the shocking moment a Spanish television journalist was approached and sexually assaulted by a man today while reporting live from Madrid.
Isa Balado was handing out a report about a local convenience store when the man approached her from behind and grabbed her butt, the footage shows.
Despite the interruption, Balado maintained her composure and told the man to let her “do my job.” Despite her pleas, the stranger persisted and even cheekily touched her hair as he walked away from her, before returning to continue talking to her.
The man was later arrested by police, and Spain’s national force posted a video on social media showing officers taking him to a police station.
Balado was reporting from Duque de Alba Street, a street that runs through the center of Madrid, when the attack occurred.
This is the shocking moment Spanish TV journalist Isa Balado (left) was approached and sexually assaulted by a man today while reporting live from Madrid.
In live television images, the man is seen approaching reporter Isa Balado, who does everything possible to maintain her composure and continue with her report.
She was reporting on an incident that occurred Sunday at a store shown behind her in the clip. The news report showed CCTV footage from inside the store, with Balado describing the events above.
While speaking on camera for the news channel En Boca De Todos, the man, dressed in white shorts, a blue jacket and dark sunglasses, is seen coming down the street behind the reporter.
Without saying a word, he approaches Balado and touches his butt.
Visibly nervous, Balado tries to continue her report, saying, “Sorry, just a minute,” before telling the man, “We’re live on television.”
But presenter Nacho Abad, the presenter who is back in the studio, asks Balado: ‘Isa, sorry for interrupting you. The sound is really bad. Did he just touch your ass?’
The awkward young reporter tells the anchor that the man did indeed touch her, and the camera adjusts to show both Balado and the man.
It seems that the man asks him which television station he works for, so Balado responds: ‘As much as you want to know which television station we are, do you really have to grope me? I’m working on a live report.’
Responding to the accusation, the man tells him: ‘I didn’t touch your ass.’
Isa Balado was handing out a report related to a local convenience store when the man (right) approached her from behind and grabbed her from behind, footage shows.
Despite the interruption, Balado maintained her composure and told the man to let her “do my job.” Despite her pleas, the stranger persisted and even touched her hair as he walked away from her, before returning to continue talking to her.
“Yes, you did,” Balado responds, as someone on the street suggests calling the police.
Balado again asks the man to leave her alone so she can continue with her work, while Abad is heard calling the man “a complete idiot” in the studio.
‘I didn’t want to touch your butt. “I respect you, you know, I wouldn’t touch your ass,” the stranger says, which again prompted the journalist to tell him to “let me work.”
As he begins to walk away, the man approaches again, this time to touch Balado’s head. ‘Is this guy stupid or what?’ Abad is heard saying.
In a second clip, the presenter is heard talking to his colleague during the broadcast and saying: ‘Isa, I understand that for you this is an extremely uncomfortable moment, and [an] Absolutely disgusting situation.”
Balado is seen on the same street talking to a woman about the incident, a little further up from the store she was standing in front of.
The woman next to him suggests that his actions were “normal” in that area of town.
‘It’s not something that happens to me, it happens to all the girls he meets. It’s very disgusting to be trying to work,” says Balado as the camera moves again and films the man bothering another person on the street.
‘As you can see, there it is. He is accompanied by another man with a hat. “I probably have nothing to do all day,” the journalist says, as the man approaches her from behind her again.
Abad warns his colleague that he is returning and tells him: ‘Isa, turn around, turn around, he is approaching you again. He’s behind you, quick, turn around!’
The man starts talking to Balado again and, perhaps realizing that he has been caught red-handed on television, appears to protest her innocence and call her a baby.
‘I heard what you said before… Tell them the truth!’ he says. ‘What do you mean by telling the truth?’ Balado responds, before the presenter ends the broadcast.
In a second clip, Balado is seen talking to a woman on the street who tells him that the man’s behavior is “normal” in that part of the city.
The man is seen approaching the presenter from behind for the second time
The man starts talking to Balado again and, perhaps realizing that he has been caught red-handed on television, appears to protest her innocence and call her a baby.
While the man’s identity is unknown, Spain’s national police released a short video later Tuesday afternoon showing the same man, wearing a blue jacket and white shorts, being led to a police station after being arrested. .
“Arrested for sexually assaulting a journalist while doing a live television program,” the police said in the tweet.
Abad later revealed on air that it was the show that took action and called the police. ‘We have called them because they have to act. We hope to have the images of the arrest of this unpresentable person,’ he said.
Another reporter from the channel, Diego Losada, said: ‘Our colleague was doing her job and an individual, with a smile, touched her buttocks without her consent. The important thing is that this disgusting individual is now arrested.’
He also asked for justice for the incident, and stated: ‘We condemn all types of aggression and in this case it has hit us very closely, because attacking Isa is like attacking any of us. In a society that we want to be better this cannot happen and this feeling of impunity cannot exist.
“This is a lack of respect and I hope he gets the full weight of the law.”
The shocking incident comes in the wake of a scandal surrounding the head of the Spanish football association, Luis Rubiales, which shook Spain.
Rubiales announced on Sunday that he was stepping down after kissing player Jenni Hermoso after his country won the Women’s World Cup in August, sparking outrage at home and abroad.
Today, Rubiales was ordered to testify before a Spanish judge investigating the kiss. Rubiales says that she had consented to the kiss, but Hermoso has denied it.
Judge Francisco de Jorge ordered Rubiales to answer his questions on Friday at Spain’s National Court in Madrid, according to court documents seen by The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Spanish prosecutors formally charged Rubiales last week with alleged sexual assault and coercion when, according to Hermoso, he pressured her to speak in his defense immediately after the scandal broke.
Rubiales announced on Sunday that he was resigning from his position, from which he had already been provisionally suspended by FIFA.
While the man’s identity is unknown, Spain’s national police released a short video (pictured) later on Tuesday afternoon showing the same man, wearing a blue jacket and white shorts, being taken to a police station after being arrested.
De Jorge is conducting the preliminary investigation into the allegations against Rubiales, and will then decide whether the case should go to trial.
Under a sexual consent law passed in Spain last year, Rubiales could face a fine or a prison sentence of one to four years if convicted of sexual assault.
The new law eliminated the difference between “sexual harassment” and “sexual assault,” punishing any non-consensual sexual act.
The incident has proven to be something of a ‘Me Too’ movement in Spain, empowering many women to tell their own experiences and shining a spotlight on the issue of sexual assault.
