Journalist slams sexual harassment of female reporters covering World Cup

María Gómez, a reporter for the Spanish TV network Mediaset, has called out the sexual harassment against female journalists reporting from the Russia World Cup.

Don’t ever do that to a woman again. Show respect

Julia Guimarães, sports journalist

“At the beginning we used to broadcast from the streets,” she says in a live interview on the video channel Be Mad. “But we decided to stop doing that and came here instead [indicating an indoor space] because some clever guy tried to swoop in and kiss us, same as with other reporters from Colombia, Germany and Brazil,” she says, before showing the footage that displays these abuses.

“Don’t ever do that to a woman again. Show respect,” was Brazilian reporter Julia Guimarães’s response to a man who kissed her on the cheek without warning while she was talking to the camera.

“It seems surreal that we should even have to ask for this. 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. We understand the euphoria, the excitement… But, please let’s end these types of situations that are so backward,” states Gómez.

Journalist María Gómez

Shortly after the broadcast, the journalist was inundated by sexist abuse on Twitter. In one message, a Twitter user wrote: “Like they really send you [to cover the World Cup] because of your knowledge about soccer...you know they sent you because of your pretty face, and you accept that, so don’t cry over it now.” The account has since been deleted.

While interviewing Spanish fans on Sunday after the national team’s defeat, Gómez, the only female TV journalist on the Mediaset team, was asked “What is your name gorgeous?” She replied, “Maria but don’t call me gorgeous. It’s Maria. Journalist.”

English version by John Clarke.