Moment BBC presenter gives middle finger to the camera live on air

Viral footage shows a BBC News presenter – apparently unaware she is live on air – flashing her middle finger as she opens a bulletin.

Maryam Moshiri can be seen raising her eyebrows and turning off the camera as she appears on screen after the program's famous musical countdown ends.

Moshiri, one of the network's lead presenters, seems to quickly realize she is live and snatches her hand away before she starts reading out headlines about Boris Johnson.

“Live from London, this is BBC News,” she says, quickly adopting a more serious demeanor.

But in a sign that perhaps she realized her hand gesture was being broadcast, she fluffed the end of the headline, referring to the “coronaverse” pandemic.

The faux pas happened on Wednesday at 12pm UK time on the BBC News world feed. The channel in Britain broadcast the Prime Minister's questions so that the global audience could follow the headlines from London.

Viewers responded online, with some suggesting the motion showed a lack of professionalism, while others joked that they felt the same way about their work.

It is not the first example of presenters swearing on BBC News, with the corporation forced to apologize after weatherman Tomasz Schafernaker made the same rude gesture.

Maryam Moshiri was announced in February as part of a new line-up of top presenters from BBC News channels

The main presenter seems to quickly realize she's live and yanks her hand away, moving into a more appropriate position as she begins reading out the headlines.

It was 7am where Twitter/X user NeilFleisc79365 was when he captured the moment and posted it online with the caption: 'Wow'

In 2010, Schafernaker was about to give the weather forecast when news anchor Simon McCoy made a light-hearted comment.

“Now we have the weather forecast within a minute and it will of course be 100 percent accurate and provide all the detail you could want,” McCoy said. “I just watched Tom Schafernaker prepare for it.”

Believing he was off camera, Schafernaker was seen raising his middle finger at McCoy in a gesture.

Schafernaker immediately realized his mistake and moved his hand to his face to hide it, seemingly as if he was scratching his chin.

The clip has been viewed millions of times online and has cemented his place as one of the Beeb's most popular weather forecasters.

In September, Moshiri made headlines with her hilarious, improvised depiction of a rare blue supermoon, when no photo of the lunar event appeared on screen.

“I'm so sorry, I don't have a picture to show you,” Moshiri said to viewers in panic.

In 2010, Schafernaker was about to present the weather forecast when he gave the middle finger to newsreader Simon McCoy

In September, Moshiri made headlines with her hilarious, improvised image of a rare blue supermoon when a photo of the lunar event failed to appear on screen

The presenter improvised and held up her hands to make a circular shape – meant to indicate a full moon.

Moshiri was announced in February as part of a new line-up of top presenters from BBC News channels.

In July, it was announced that she would be taking over the program The Daily Global, which she continues to host in addition to anchoring.

The BBC has been contacted for comment.