Watch: BBC newsreader who swore at camera was doing rude countdown

The senior BBC newsreader who was caught giving the finger live on air was doing a rude countdown, a newly emerged clip has shown.

Maryam Moshiri, a chief presenter on the BBC News channel, was seen sticking her middle finger up while appearing to pull a face at somebody behind the camera last week.

She then quickly snatched her hand back after realising she was live on air ahead of the midday bulletins.

Counting down from ten

However, a new clip released on social media has revealed that Ms Moshiri was counting down backwards from ten.

Alternating between showing the palms and backs of her hands, the journalist is shown to count ‘six’ with a thumbs up, and also appearing to make a rude gesture when she reaches the number ‘two’.

The Iranian-born journalist at the time claimed that she had been “pretending to count down as the director was counting me down from 10-0… including the fingers to show the number.”

‘Turned finger around as joke’

She added: “When we got to 1, I turned my finger around as a joke and did not realise that this would be caught on camera.”

The clip, which Ms Moshiri said was not released by the BBC or herself, appears to corroborate the claim.

Speaking following the release of the full video, the journalist wrote on Twitter: “So someone released the full video!

“It wasn’t the BBC who released this and it certainly wasn’t me!

‘Private laugh’

“In a way I think I’m glad this is out there, as it shows I WAS having a bit of a joke with the crew during the countdown.

“Again, so sorry it went out on air. It was meant to be a private laugh,” she added.

When asked whether she knew at the time that it had been captured live on air, the journalist replied: “Had no idea until I started reading the autocue and the director said ‘I think that went out’.”

The clip of Ms Moshiri swearing on camera has since gone viral, with the social media account for the Conservative party using a still of the clip to attack Labour over immigration.

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