UK NEWS

BBC reporter caught flipping off camera

BBC news anchor Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the middle finger to the camera live on air and has apologized, saying it was meant as a “private joke”.

On Wednesday, a BBC News report in the UK was airing live when news anchor Maryam Moshiri was caught giving the middle finger to the camera before getting serious and announcing, “Live from London, this is BBC News” and then launching into an update about Boris Johnson.

The video quite quickly went viral across social media and Moshiri has since apologized, saying that she was joking with her colleagues during the countdown and that it was not meant to be seen live nor had she realized it would be.

“I was pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0... including the fingers to show the number,” said Moshiri. “So from 10 fingers held up to one. When we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realize that this would be caught on camera. 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.”