A BBC news presenter who was caught giving the middle finger on live television has explained why she was doing it in the first place.
In the world of live TV, things can go wrong and the audience will usually be quite forgiving... unless you're caught swearing and then people will mercilessly share it across social media.
This is what has happened to one unfortunate BBC newsreader who was caught giving the middle finger on TV, and it's doing the rounds online.
Maryam Moshiri was set to deliver the BBC News at 12:00PM UK time on Wednesday, but as the cameras switched to the studio it appeared to catch her off guard as she flipped off the camera with a smile on her face.
After realizing what had happened, and probably with her stomach doing flips, she continued reading the headlines without any reference to what the cameras had just captured.
Naturally, people were left pretty stunned by what they had seen, so Moshiri took to social media to explain what happened.
She penned: "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 we got to 1 I turned finger around as a joke and did not realise 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."
It remains unclear whether Moshiri got into trouble about her on-screen faux pas, though it's presumed that she got reminded to remain professional at all times.
This isn't the first time this has happened, and I dare say it won't be the last, as back in 2010 an unfortunate weatherman was caught flipping his middle finger and styled it off terribly.
The BBC was forced to apologize after Tomasz Schafernaker flipped off newsreader Simon McCoy after he jokingly told him that his forecast would be "100 percent accurate".
After realizing that he had been caught on camera, Schafernaker decided to act like he was scratching the side of his face... and it just made everything a bit worse.
"The News Channel presenter in the studio acknowledged a mistake had been made, and we apologise for any offence caused," a spokesperson for the BBC said.
"Tomasz was not aware that he was on air, and whilst the gesture was only shown for a second, it was not acceptable."
Following the mistake, McCoy said on air: "Every now and again there's always a mistake and that was it."
Schafernaker wrote after the event: "Prior to a live weather bulletin, I made a gesture off camera joking with my fellow presenters and without warning the camera went live to the weather studio. I am very sorry for any offence that might have been caused by my actions."
Best just to sit on your hands when live on air!
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