Eleri Carrog from the lobby group Cefn condemned the decision as unfair.

Interviewed about the commission's ruling on comments made by Ms Robinson on the show Room 101, Ms Carrog said: "We think it is a whitewash."

She told BBC Radio Four's Today programme: "The Broadcasting Standards Commission accepted our argument that the Welsh were treated differently from other minorities....but then said it was OK for the Welsh to be the butt of racism - or, as they call it, 'robust humour' - because we are not a vulnerable group."

Ms Carrog was speaking on Tuesday following news that The Weakest Link presenter had been cleared of making racist comments after describing the that she finds the Welsh "irritating and annoying".

Her comments were made as viewers in the United States got their first taste of Ms Robinson with the launch of an American version of the sadistic quiz show on NBC.

Despite the ruling of the broadcasting standards watchdog that Ms Robinson's remarks were not racist, it did however, agree with critics that her words "came close to the boundaries of acceptability".

The comments, broadcast on BBC Two's Room 101 programme, provoked a record 427 complaints to the BSC.