Balado tried to keep the man at a distance, telling him she was broadcasting live and continued reporting on for another 10 seconds. The host, Nacho Abad, then apologized for interrupting and asked: “Did he just touch your bottom?” Clearly uncomfortable, and with the man still standing next to her, the reporter said yes.
“Put this idiot on,” Abad said. Balado then confronted the man: “As much as you want to ask us what channel we’re from, did you really have to touch my bottom? I’m doing a live and I’m working.” The man denied having wanted to touch Balado. He said, “I respect you,” and then attempted to touch her hair as he walked off. In a longer version of the clip on the program’s website, Abad offered his support to his colleague and said: “I’m very sorry for what just happened to you … I’m really angry.”
Balado then returned to her report. In a later shot, Balado described the incident as “completely unpleasant” and said the man was “bothering everyone he comes across” further down the street. Abad told Balado to turn around as the man again approached her and demanded that she “tell the truth,” prompting the reporter to seek to end the broadcast. “I don’t feel at all like giving him the limelight,” she said.
On Tuesday, police in Madrid announced the arrest of a man suspected of “sexually assaulting a reporter while she was doing a television live.” The incident prompted a strong response from Spanish politicians and journalists, highlighting the harassment female reporters can face while working in public, at a time when the country has seen increased scrutiny of sexist behavior against women.
“Nonconsensual touching is sexual violence and we say enough to impunity. All my support to @IsaBalado. Only yes is yes,” acting Equality Minister Irene Montero posted on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Sexism is what causes female journalists to suffer sexual assaults like this and the aggressors to have no remorse in front of the camera. It can’t go unpunished,” acting Labor Minister Yolanda Díaz responded.
The incident has also led to debate about how people should best support victims of sexual harassment and ensure their safety and well-being. Victoria Rosell Aguilar, the Spanish government’s delegate against gender-based violence, questioned the response of the reporter’s team.
“Next time, instead of forcing her to confront the aggressor, with the obvious risk of suffering another touch, or something worse, stop in order to identify him and be able to report” the incident “if she makes that decision,” Aguilar posted on X. “Nobody is born knowing how to respond, but in the case of #SexistViolence we always ask first to try and ensure the well-being of the victim, remove the source of danger, and then identify the aggressor.”
The company that owns the Spanish television channel, Mediaset, posted on X that it “categorically rejects any type of harassment or aggression” and offered its support to Balado for the “absolutely intolerable situation she has suffered.”
In a statement posted on X, the Spanish Academy of Television and Audiovisual Arts and Sciences said: “As in other regrettable episodes, we would like to express our solidarity with the assaulted colleague and reiterate our commitment to information professionals for the free exercise of their profession in all news coverage.”
Other Spanish female journalists shared their experiences of being harassed while they were working in public. Verónica Sanz shared a clip on X of her report from a famous festival in Buñol in 2011, in which she can be heard saying that people in the crowd are pinching her buttocks. “Of course, they’re not stupid. They take advantage,” the female anchor replies.
Similar cases have been reported around the world. In the United States, reporter Alex Bozarjian was covering a 2019 race live in Georgia when a man smacked her buttocks. “You violated, objectified, and embarrassed me,” she tweeted. “No woman should EVER have to put up with this at work or anywhere!! Do better.”
And during the 2018 soccer World Cup in Russia, a number of female journalists said they were groped or sexually harassed while working, including María Gómez of Spain, Julieth González of Colombia and Julia Guimaraes of Brazil, who were all confronted by strangers who tried to kiss them. The Committee to Protect Journalists said at the time the incidents highlighted the public harassment faced by many journalists, including three American journalists they interviewed.
Sexual harassment and consent has been hotly debated in Spain in recent weeks. On Sunday, the president of the Spanish soccer federation resigned after facing public backlash for kissing a female player on the lips after the team won the Women’s World Cup. Luis Rubiales had remained defiant for weeks despite being suspended by the sport’s governing body, FIFA, and facing legal challenges over the kiss, which player Jenni Hermoso repeatedly stated was not consensual. Rubiales has been summoned to appear before a judge on Friday.
Spanish laws against sexual harassment have been under scrutiny following an incident in 2016, known as the “wolf pack” attack, in which a group of men filmed themselves sexually assaulting an 18-year-old woman. A court initially found they were not guilty of rape because the law at the time required violence and intimidation for convictions.
A new law known as “only yes is yes” was introduced by Spanish legislators in response, but it had the unintended consequence of creating a highly controversial loophole that allowed more than 1,000 offenders to have their sentences reduced, Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported earlier this year.
The government has apologized, but this week one of the men convicted in the “wolf pack” had his sentence reduced from 15 years to 14 years, according to Reuters news agency, though the decision may still be appealed. According to the program Balado works for, the provincial prosecutor’s office in Madrid sought a 300-meter restraining order and a ban on the suspect contacting the journalist.
On Wednesday, however, a judge at court in Madrid had agreed to release the suspect without any restrictions, with a statement saying the judge did not foresee “a situation of risk, urgency, violence or intimidation against the victim, whom he did not know until the moment the events occurred.”
Nonetheless, some journalists have expressed hope that the outrage over the incident shows that public awareness has improved. Sanz, the reporter who described being sexually harassed while covering a festival in 2011, said she had “a bad time” and “didn’t feel very supported.” “It seems like another world, in only 12 years,” she wrote. “Today would be different, which is what counts.”