Maryam Moshiri, the presenter in question, was hosting live from the BBC studios yesterday afternoon, when she made the rude gesture.
In a clip of this incident which has gone viral, Moshiri can be spotted raising her eyebrows, titling her head, before flipping her middle finger at the camera.
However, after realising that she was on air, Moshiri quickly moved to a more professional position, before proceeding to read the news bulletin aloud, with the latest headlines.
This clip was met with a huge backlash online, with several licence fee payers castigating Moshiri over a lack of professionalism on camera.
Following this, Maryam Moshiri issued a grovelling apology on social media for any offence caused.
"Hey everyone , yesterday just before the top of the hour I was joking around a bit with the team in the gallery", she wrote. "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", the presenter added. "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," she stated. "It was a silly joke that was meant for a small number of my mates".
This post did not do much to calm the storms, with several X users slamming Moshiri's behaviour, including GB News' Darren Grimes.
"BBC News. At last they tell us how they feel about us", Grimes wrote.
Another X user added, "BBC - Presenter swearing at licence taxpayers. Saw a photo of this yesterday & assumed it was photoshopped. But no. It's the BBC swearing at us".
Other comments include, "BBC accidentally showing what they really think of licence fee payers," alongside several laughing emojis.
"A picture paints a thousand words @BBC", added another.
Another viewer remarked, "This isn’t satire, an actual BBC News presenter got caught giving the middle finger live. Maryam Moshiri summing up the professionalism currently at the BBC".
The BBC have yet to comment on the matter at the time of writing.
