Mortifying moment BBC News presenter flashes middle finger to cameras at start of report – and immediately panics
A BBC NEWS presenter was caught giving the middle finger live on air in a mortifying moment.
Maryam Moshiri was on presenting duties for the broadcaster on Wednesday afternoon.
While UK viewers watched Boris Jonhson apologise during the Coronavirus enquiry, global viewers were given the main headlines.
Standing by to deliver them was Maryam who appeared to be joking with bosses behind the scenes and flashed her middle finger to the camera.
However, the embarrassing blunder occurred just as the BBC show came on air meaning viewers were greeted with the rude gesture.
Maryam appeared panicked when she realised the moment had made it to air and scrambled to continue the bulletin.
She swiftly said: “Live from London, this is BBC News.”
Reacting the scene on social media, one Beeb viewer described the incident as “disgraceful”.
Another commented: “This your new organisation giving the middle finger to the people.”
“Maryam Moshiri summing up the professionalism currently at the BBC,” said a third.
While a fourth posted: “Sacked in the morning! She’s getting sacked in the morning!”
In a statement posted on social media, Maryam apologised to viewers and explained she was pretending to count down herself to broadcast.
The journalist penned: “Hey everyone , yesterday just before the top of the hour I was joking around a bit with the team in the gallery. I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0.. including the fingers to show the number.
“So from 10 fingers held up to one. When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera.
“It was a private joke with the team and I’m so sorry it went out on air! It was not my intention for this to happen and I’m sorry if I offended or upset anyone.
“I wasn’t ‘flipping the bird’ at viewers or even a person really. It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”
It’s not the first time the middle finger has made it on to BBC News.
In 2010 viewers tuned in for the weather forecast only to be greeted by Tomasz Schafernaker flashing his finger.
It came as Simon McCoy, who was presenting the main news bulletin at the time, made a joke at his colleague during the show.