Yoko Ono to be editor for a day on BBC's 'Today' programme

Yoko Ono has been invited to be a guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

The Japanese artist and former wife of John Lennon will be in the editor's chair, assisted by one of the full-time presenters, in the approach to Christmas and the New Year.

Although the theme has not been chosen, she will contribute a report on her Imagine Peace Tower, built in the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik.

Ono is the first name confirmed among the five guest editors on Today at the end of the year. Previous guests editors have included Bono, Norman Tebbit, Sir Richard Branson and Sarah Ferguson.

Since the 1960s, Ono has been an activist for peace and human rights. After their wedding, Lennon and Ono held a "Bed-In for Peace" in their honeymoon suite at the Amsterdam Hilton Hotel in March 1969. Another "Bed-In" in May 1969 in Montreal, Canada, resulted in the recording of their first single, "Give Peace A Chance", a Top-20 hit for the Plastic Ono Band. Other demonstrations with Lennon included Bagism, to encourage a disregard for physical appearance in judging others. Ono has been outspoken in her support of feminism, and is openly bitter about the racism she experienced from rock fans, especially in England. An article in Esquire magaarticle in 1969 was headlined "John Rennon's Excrusive Gloupie".

In 2002, Ono inaugurated her own peace award by giving £32,000 prize money to artists living "in regions of conflict". Israeli and Palestinian artists were the first recipients.