Moment BBC presenter gives middle finger to the camera live on air
Viral footage shows the BBC news presenter, who appears unaware she is on live television, giving her middle finger as she opens her bulletin.
Maryam Moshiri can be seen raising her eyebrows and turning off the camera when she appears on screen after the end of the programme’s famous musical countdown.
Moshiri, one of the broadcaster’s presenters, appears to quickly realize she is alive and withdraws her hand before reading out headlines about Boris Johnson.
“Live from London, this is BBC News,” she says, quickly turning to a more serious tone.
However, in a sign that she may have realized her hand gesture was being shown on air, she scrambled the end of the headline to refer to the “coronaverse” pandemic.
The gaffe occurred on the BBC News world feed at 12 noon UK time on Wednesday. A channel in the UK showed Prime Minister’s Questions, so a global audience listened to headlines delivered from London.
Viewers reacted online, with some suggesting the sentence showed unprofessionalism, while others joked that they felt the same way about their work.
This is not the first example of presenters swearing at BBC News: the corporation was forced to apologize after meteorologist Tomasz Schafernaker made a similarly rude gesture.
Maryam Moshiri was announced as part of the BBC News Channel’s new line-up of top presenters back in February.
The presenter seems to quickly realize that she is alive and withdraws her hand, adopting a more appropriate demeanor as she begins to read out the headlines.
At 7am, Twitter/X user NeilFleisc79365 captured the moment and posted it online with the caption: “Wow!”
In 2010, Schafernaker was about to give a weather forecast when news anchor Simon McCoy made a light-hearted remark.
“Now in a minute we’ll get the weather forecast and of course it will be 100 percent accurate and give us all the information we need,” McCoy said. “I just saw Tom Schafernaker preparing for this.”
Believing he was off camera, Schafernaker gave McCoy the middle finger.
Instantly realizing his mistake, Schafernaker brought his hand to his face to disguise it, pretending to scratch his chin.
The clip received millions of views online and cemented his place as one of the Beebe’s most popular meteorologists.
In September, Moshiri made headlines with her hilarious impromptu image of a rare blue supermoon when the image of the lunar event failed to appear on screen.
“I’m really sorry, I don’t have a photo to show you,” a panicked Moshiri told viewers.
In 2010, Schafernaker was about to present a weather forecast when he gave news anchor Simon McCoy the middle finger.
In September, Moshiri made headlines with her hilarious impromptu image of a rare blue supermoon when an image of the lunar event failed to appear on screen.
The presenter improvised by raising her hands to form a circle to represent the full moon.
Moshiri was announced as part of the BBC News Channel’s new line-up of top presenters back in February.
In July, it was announced that she would take over The Daily Global, which she continues to co-host.
The BBC has been contacted for comment.