Man Arrested for Groping Reporter During Live Broadcast

A Span­ish TV reporter was assault­ed dur­ing a live street report, lead­ing to arrest. Isa Bal­a­do of Cua­tro was cov­er­ing a local sto­ry in Madrid when a man walked up and fon­dled her backside. 

Co-host Nacho Abad asked if she was touched, and Bal­a­do con­firmed, try­ing to con­tin­ue her report. How­ev­er, Abad insist­ed the grop­er be shown, con­fronting the man, who denied it.

As he lin­gered, Bal­a­do said oth­er women faced advances. Approach­ing her again, police took the 25-year-old into cus­tody. Own­ers of Cua­tro con­demned all harassment. 

The inci­dent sparked nation­al out­rage in Spain over tol­er­at­ing sex­ism, amid scan­dal around a soc­cer chief kiss­ing a play­er with­out consent.

Labor Min­is­ter Yolan­da Diaz vowed such attacks on jour­nal­ists will not go unpun­ished, say­ing “machis­mo” nor­mal­izes this behav­ior. The reporter’s brav­ery in fac­ing her attack­er live helped dri­ve reforms against gen­der-based violence.