The editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme has defended a controversial interview with the leader of the British National Party in the wake of disturbances in Oldham.

Rod Liddle said of the interview with Nick Griffin, on 30 June, that it would be "undemocratic" never to give political extremists a platform, speaking at the Radio Festival in Manchester.

At the start of the interview Mr Griffin had declared he was not a racist, but by the end of the interview, Mr Liddle claimed, no-one would have been in any doubt that he was.

Chairing a discussion of the media coverage of the Oldham riots, BBC governor Ranjit Sondhi suggested it would have been more interesting to interview those who had voted for the BNP while knowing nothing of its policies.

Mr Sondhi's view is shared by other Asians, including some BBC journalists of Asian origin.

Media criticised

But Mr Liddle disagreed, saying the BNP's election literature had depicted the organisation as one that wanted to "heal" Oldham's problems.

He said that the programme team did not believe that statement, but said the way to tackle the hypocrisy of the BNP, was not to censor the party but to expose its extremist views.

The festival also heard from the deputy mayor of Oldham, Riaz Ahmed, who criticised the media for only talking to Asians when there were problems.

"If you're not reporting the good news, and only talking to people like me when there is a disturbance, are you fuelling the problem?" he asked.

And while he praised broadcasters' desire to achieve balance in their coverage, he criticised the way they sometimes tried to achieve it.

He said it was not necessarily balanced to interview a representative of the BNP and an Asian, when one was a thug with a criminal record who had lost an eye blowing up a chip shop and the other was a magistrate.

The BBC had - on police advice - dropped plans to interview the British National Party leader in Burnley, the scene of recent rioting and continued racial tension, and instead spoke to him over the telephone.