MADISON, Wis. -- Leaders of a University of Wisconsin-Madison campus newspaper confronted its critics on Thursday after running a controversial ad on its Web site.

The Badger Herald accepted a Holocaust-denying ad on its Web site last week. On Wednesday, students demonstrated against the ad and the paper, remembering the millions who died in the Holocaust and denouncing the hate they believe is being fueled by the newspaper.

However, the paper's editors are defending the ad. An ethics forum was held on campus on Thursday in response to the protest.

"As much as I hate what I think Bradley Smith [the man who bought the ad] was trying to say in that ad, and as much as I hate what the Holocaust deniers are saying, they do have a right to say it," said Badger Herald editor-in-chief Jason Smathers.

Some of the university's ethics professors who teach much of the paper's staff disagree.

"This organization decided to speak very loudly about its repudiation of this ad," said UW journalism professor Katy Culver. "And I think that's laudable, but I think that could have been done without running the ad in the first place."

"I happen to think the decision was wrong that it errs on the side of freedom and not enough on the side of responsibility," said UW journalism ethics professor Stephen Ward.

The paper's editor said he thinks the ad is OK because UW students acknowledge the tragedy of the Holocaust. He said in the future the paper will revise its ad approval process, WISC-TV reported.