BBC presenter Maryam Moshiri flips middle finger live in countdown blooper

Maryam Moshiri raised a middle finger as the BBC News midday bulletin cut to her on 6 December 2023. Deadline and The Guardian both reported that the chief presenter immediately dropped her hand, took on a serious expression and began the headlines.

The short sequence was posted that day by the Twitter accounts @thetvroom and @BNODesk. Jake Kanter of Deadline wrote that other accounts clipped it and that it spread quickly across the site.

Moshiri was one of BBC News’s chief presenters, promoted in February 2023, Kanter reported. She had worked for the broadcaster for more than 20 years. Alexandra Topping in The Guardian wrote that the moment came at the start of the noon bulletin, right after the programme’s familiar countdown. Once composed, Moshiri told viewers “Live from London, this is BBC News,” according to Deadline, and moved into headlines about Boris Johnson’s appearance at the Covid inquiry.

She apologized publicly on X the following day. “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 wrote, a statement carried by Deadline, The Guardian and Global News. In a longer post quoted by those outlets she added: “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…” Nine.com.au recorded her further line: “It was a private joke with the team and I’m so sorry it went out on air!” She described the whole thing as a silly joke meant for a small number of her mates.

The BBC later released extended behind-the-scenes footage of the full countdown. Clea Skopeliti of The Guardian reported that the longer clip showed Moshiri counting six with a thumbs up, making a rude hand gesture for two, then holding up the middle finger. Moshiri said she was glad the fuller footage made clear she had been joking with the crew, Skopeliti wrote.

Gallery producer Robert Coxwell said the original moment went largely ignored for ten hours. According to Global News, drawing on The Guardian, he said someone then went onto a BBC system, clipped it and sent it out. Coxwell called that step “regrettable” and said the person “found the need to amplify it.” He said the material came from an internal archive called Autorot. “Luckily Autorot provides a log of who did what because it triggers an email to say the clip they wanted is ready to be downloaded,” Coxwell said.