“It was a joke with the team”: after her middle finger on the BBC, a presenter explains herself

2023-12-18 12:48:28

A blunder possibly seen by millions of viewers. For almost two weeks, a BBC presenter has been making headlines in the United Kingdom after giving the middle finger to the camera, just before the introduction of her television news. A gesture which was a “joke”, she explained this Friday, after the broadcast of the full images of her clumsiness.

The day after her gaffe, on December 7, Maryam Moshiri, presenter of the British news channel BBC News, had already apologized after a video showing her giving the finger went viral online. In the extract, short of a few seconds, we saw her performing, with a mischievous air, the controversial gesture in front of the camera before resuming, with a more serious air, the announcement of her bulletin.

“I was joking a little with the team,” she explained then, ensuring that she was “pretending to count down” with her fingers, before the start of her bulletin, and therefore using the middle finger as number 1 . “It was a private joke with the team and I’m really sorry it was broadcast! “, she insisted.

A blunder between colleagues

However, the extract did not show the famous long count. Friday, Maryam Moshiri confirmed the broadcast, on social networks, of another extract showing, this time, the entire count facing the camera… Which therefore confirms the explanation for her blunder: it was ‘a schoolboy and clumsy joke made between colleagues, before the broadcast of information.

“So someone released the full video!” It wasn’t the BBC that broadcast this extract and it certainly wasn’t me! “, she says on about the extract, also relayed on social networks, but the origin of its distribution remains unknown for the moment.

“But in a way, I think I’m glad it’s there, because it shows that I was joking a little bit with the team during the countdown. Again, sorry this was broadcast live. It must have been a joke in private,” insists the journalist.

This is not the first blunder made by a BBC live presenter, recalls the Guardian. In 2010, weather presenter Tomasz Schafernaker had also given the finger to his colleagues, livebefore awkwardly trying to catch himself by scratching his chin.