BBC News presenter Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the middle finger to camera in an on-air gaffe that she says was a “private joke” gone wrong.
On Wednesday, Maryam Moshiri, one of BBC News’s chief presenters, was seen at the start of the BBC News bulletin at noon with her middle finger – and eyebrows – raised, after the end of the program’s recognizable countdown.
The error has been clipped up by various Twitter (now X) accounts and has been going viral on the social media site, prompting Moshiri to issue an explanation and apology.
Been a while since a middle finger gesture made it on to BBC News… pic.twitter.com/eS5hOJ0PYY
— Clean Feed @ The TV Room (@cleanfeed_ttvr) December 6, 2023
The presenter said she was sharing a private joke with her friends in the gallery, which involved counting down with her fingers and ending with the potentially offensive gesture.
“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,” she said.
Several people were offended by Moshiri’s tweet, claiming it was unprofessional and used it as justification to demand that the BBC be denied funding. However, she also received a ton of sympathy from other individuals who had laughed at the incident. One person even said, “As a BBC licence payer I demand more of this type of behavior.”
In 2010, Schafernaker jokingly flipped the bird at the news presenter Simon McCoy, but realizing he was on camera panicked and – utterly unsuccessfully – made a wild attempt to pretend to scratch his chin. With the videos brightening millions of moments in the decade since, it has contributed to the enduring popularity of the weatherman.
