The Investigating Judge number 54 of Madrid, on duty, released this Wednesday the man detained yesterday for touching the buttocks of a live reporter.
The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid (TSJM) has explained in a statement that the magistrate has not agreed to any precautionary measure “as she did not appreciate a risk situation, nor urgency, nor violence, nor intimidation against the victim, whom she did not know until the moment the events occur.”
After appearing before the judge, the prosecutor had requested a 300-meter restraining order and a prohibition on communicating by any means with the victim, reporter Isabel Balado, whose buttocks he touched while she was doing a live report this Monday.
The events occurred when the reporter was reporting live for the Cuatro program En boca de todos on Duque de Alba Street, near the establishment where a fight took place on Sunday between a thief and two merchants.
It was at that moment when the stranger approached her and, without saying a word, touched her ass, which is legally classified as a sexual crime.
After the attack, Nacho Abad, host of the program, stopped the connection to ask Balado if that man had just touched his ass. “Yes,” the reporter responded in a state of shock. The journalist confronted the sexual offender and told him: “As much as you want to ask what channel we are from, do you really have to touch my ass? I’m doing a live show and I’m working.”
The sexual attacker denied having touched her ass, when the images clearly showed how he did it. “Yes, you touched it for me. I would like you to let me work,” said the reporter from En boca de todos. These images have gone viral instantly and have caused great indignation on social networks.
In a statement, Mediaset “flatly rejected any type of harassment or aggression” after “the absolutely intolerable situation” suffered by the reporter while working in Madrid.
For its part, the Academy of Television and Audiovisual Sciences and Arts expressed its solidarity with the attacked reporter and has reiterated its commitment to information professionals for the free exercise of their profession in all news coverage.
Shortly after, the man was arrested and transferred to the Family and Women’s Care Unit of the Madrid Police Headquarters, from where he was brought to justice.