BBC presenter Maryam Moshiri was seen 'flipping the bird' live on a news broadcast (Image: BBC)
A BBC presenter has apologised after greeting viewers of a news broadcast with her middle finger raised.
Maryam Moshiri, a chief presenter on the BBC News channel, was seen to make the obscene gesture after a countdown to the start of the show.
She quickly realised she was live on air and reverted to normal.
The incident was flagged by the Clean Feed @ The TV Room account on Twitter/X. It wrote: “Been a while since a middle finger gesture made it on to BBC News …”
Responding, Moshiri said she had been having a “private joke”.
The presenter said: “Hey, I’m so sorry about this. I was having a private joke with the team in the gallery and pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0 … including the fingers to show the number.
“When we got to 1 I turned finger [sic] 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.
READ MORE: Robert Jenrick quits as immigration minister over Rwanda legislation
“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 comes after the UK Government confirmed veteran TV executive Samir Shah was their preferred candidate to take over as BBC chair.
Currently chief executive of award-winning production company Juniper TV, Shah was also an executive on the controversial report by Boris Johnson’s Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities, which concluded that the “claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence”.
He has also criticised “woke warriors” in an article for The Spectator discussing the cultural appropriation of food.
Obiyandu on December 7th, 2023 at 15:24 UTC »
A middle finger! (Clutches pearls)
mcrosby78 on December 7th, 2023 at 11:14 UTC »
As I've said on /r/bbc, one of the first rules we're taught as presenters is to always assume we're on air. It's 100% likely for a microphone or camera to be put to air at the wrong time at some point in your career.
mtranda on December 7th, 2023 at 09:58 UTC »
After ACCIDENTALLY giving viewers the middle finger. She was messing about with her colleagues, as you do.
This reminds me of an "incident" in my country when the highest paid news anchor was caught saying "this thing is fucked again" to her colleagues. You know, as people actually talk in real life. It turned into a national scandal. This was 20 years ago, though.
And although such things should not have created an outrage, I kind of miss the times when THESE were things to be outraged about instead of the constant abuses that are now largely ignored, made by politicians and media personalities.