Man arrested after sexually assaulting female reporter live on TV

Madrid, Sep 12 (EFE).- Police in Madrid have arrested a 25-year-old man after he allegedly sexually assaulted television reporter Isa Balado on Tuesday.

In the footage, which was being broadcast live for Cuatro’s “En boca de todos” (On everyone’s lips), the man approaches Balado, who was reporting on a robbery in the Tirso de Molina area of central Madrid, and appears to touch her bottom while asking her what channel she was working for.

As he walks away, he is seen trying to touch her hair as a visibly uncomfortable Balado ducks out the way.

The footage has gone viral on social media.

The police released a video of the man in handcuffs later on Tuesday afternoon.

The incident has sparked outrage in Spain, where a debate has been raging in recent weeks following the suspension of Spanish football federation president Luis Rubiales after he kissed striker Jennifer Hermoso on the lips during celebrations for Spain’s Fifa Women’s World Cup final victory over England last month.

Rubiales, who has said that the kiss was consensual despite Hermoso insisting that it was not and that it had made her feel the “victim of an aggression”, resigned on Sunday night.

Spain’s equality minister Irene Montero, who led the left-wing government’s calls for Rubiales to be removed from his position, took to Twitter Tuesday to show her support for Balado.

“What until now was ‘normal’ is no longer so. #SeAcabó (It’s Over) is the cry of our country to guarantee the right to sexual freedom for all women (…) Only yes means yes,” Montero said.

The secretary of state for equality and against gender violence, Ángela Rodríguez, also backed Balado.

“The impunity with which aggressors behave, even on TV or with the entire world watching a World Cup final, using our bodies, has to end,” she wrote. EFE

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