Elisa Menendez
A SPANISH reporter has called out sexual harassment against female reporters during the World Cup.
It comes after Mediaset Espana TV presenter, Maria Gomez, was grabbed and kissed on the cheek by a fan.
The journalist was live on air reporting from Moscow ahead of Spain’s shocking defeat against Russia when the incident occurred.
Gomez can be seen recoiling in the footage before the fan sprints away, as she shouts after him: ‘Come on?! Seriously?!’
She later shared a clip of the incident on her Twitter account, which received 33,000 shares, in a bid to protest against football fans who inappropriately touch female reporters.
Moscú. Hoy mismo.
Quería aparcar un poco este tema, pero he decidido publicar el vídeo para que esos que dicen que exageramos y que esto son sólo bromas me expliquen dónde está aquí el chiste, por favor. Es que yo no le veo la gracia y sigue sin parecerme normal. Un saludo. pic.twitter.com/lzNkXgDxYG
— María Gómez (@maria__gomez) June 30, 2018
The Tweet reads: “Moscow. Today.
“I did want to leave this issue behind a bit but I have decided to publish the video so that all those who say we exaggerate and that these are just jokes, can explain to me where the joke is please? It’s that I don’t find it funny and it still doesn’t seem normal to me. Regards.”
During a TV interview with Be Mad Gomez revealed how female journalists used to report from the streets but do not feel safe anymore, and now regularly do so from an indoor area.
Gomez made reference to a number of other female football reporters who have been abused while on the job from Colombia, Germany and Brazil.
Just last week Deutsche Welle Colombian news correspondent, Julieth Gonzalez Theran, was harassed reporting live from the World Cup when a fan appeared to grab her breast and kiss her on the cheek.
Theran continued her report without being distracted by the incident but later posted the incident on social media in a bid to catch him.
However, Fox Sports journalist, Maria Fernanda Mora from Mexico, decided to ‘defend’ herself after she claimed a fan discreetly groped her buttocks twice live on air.
She turned around and began hitting him with her microphone and later took to social media to call out ‘machismo’ behaviour in football.
Gomez slammed these incidents as ‘backward’ during her TV interview.
“I don’t know if it needs to be made any clearer, but enough of these attitudes, enough of these types of men. We are doing our jobs, we are not wallflowers, we are not waiting for kisses that we do not ask for… We are not little dolls in the street. We are professionals and we simply ask for respect,” she added.
After Gomez’s interview, she later became the subject of trolling on Twitter.
Si queréis un ejemplo, aquí lo tenéis. https://t.co/XXYBi41Yyd
— María Gómez (@maria__gomez) June 27, 2018
One post read: “Like they sent you because you understand football… You know they sent you because of your pretty face and you accept that, so don’t cry now.”
