Newsreader caught checking phone on live TV

A BBC newsreader has been caught scrolling through her phone at the most inopportune time — in front of live cameras.

As the BBC's beeping intro was played over live shots of the studio at the start of a news bulletin, the camera focused on anchorwoman Joanna Gosling as she flicked through her phone, blissfully unaware the broadcast had begun.

Finally realising she was on the air, the presenter looked up like a deer in headlights but only for a moment as she quickly composed herself and launched into the bulletin like a pro.

The gaffe was immediately noted on Twitter and Gosling herself acknowledged the stuff-up.

"Thanks for all your lovely comments about the blooper yesterday! Technical hitch meant I had no idea I was up next," she wrote overnight.

Gosling is not the first newsreader to be caught out in the same studio.

Last year political correspondent and presenter Carole Walker was caught brushing her hair on air with her handbag on the desk as cameras broadcast images of her live to millions of viewers.