BBC News Channel’s chief presenter Maryam Moshiri has apologized for an on-air gaffe she made that featured an obscene hand gesture only meant to be seen off-air, but ended up being seen by millions of viewers.
Cameras caught Moshiri giving the raised middle finger gesture, also colloquially known as “flipping the bird,” right as the intro of her news program concluded, and the screen transitioned to showing her.
As these things often do, the clip has since gone viral.
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
Moshiri took to social media to apologize and explain what led up to it, saying, “It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates.”
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…
— Maryam Moshiri (@BBCMaryam) December 7, 2023
Maryam is one of a handful of new presenters to land at the BBC News Channel, which relaunched earlier this year and was a combination of BBC News, a U.K.-focused news channel, and BBC World News, which catered to a global audience.