BBC News reader apologises after getting caught flashing middle finger live on air

A BBC newsreader has apologised after going viral for getting caught giving the middle finger while live on air.

Maryam Moshiri was reading the headlines on the BBC News world feed on Wednesday afternoon before the programme's countdown played.

After this, Moshiri appeared to be unaware that she was live on air as she could be seen raising her eyebrows and raising her finger directly at the camera, surprising lunchtime viewers.

But the chief presenter appeared to suddenly realise that she was live and immediately moved her hand away and began to read the headlines.

She said in a serious tone: "Live from London, this is BBC News."

Then, she read headlines concerning former prime minister Boris Johnson giving evidence at the Covid inquiry.

Moshiri may have realised her middle finger moment was caught on camera as she tripped up over one of the headlines where she called it "the coronaverse pandemic".

Since then, the clip quickly has made the rounds on social media.

One person joked: "Maryam Moshiri nicely summing up the public's thoughts on Boris Johnson here."

"What was said in her ear just before this I wonder," another person said.

Someone else wrote: "New meme just dropped."

"I mean, this is funny every time it happens, but surely this must be in the employee manual by now, it happens so often. 'Don't risk flipping off the nation while doing workplace larks' or something," a fourth person commented.

Moshiri has also since responded on Twitter/X with an apology for her actions, noting that it was a "silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates" and she didn't think that it would be aired.

"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," she wrote.

“When we got to 1 I turned finger [sic] around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera."

She continued: "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 Moshiri has gone viral, as the presenter sparked conversations online after during a report about a supermoon, she held her hands up to demonstrate the shape of the moon when a picture of it couldn't be shown.

Moshiri also isn't the first BBC presenter to be caught flipping off while on air, as back in 2010 weather reporter Tomasz Schafernaker similarly gave the middle finger but attempted to play it off by scratching his face.

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