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The Broadcasting Standards Authority has reported a declining number of complaints, but says it was not under-worked in the year to June because of the complex issues it had to deal with.
In its annual report it says most of the complaints it received were about two TV programmes - Popetown and South Park.
It did not uphold complaints about either Popetown, a satirical cartoon series about the Pope, or the episode of South Park about the Virgin Mary.
"We declined to uphold the complaints because, in these cases, an upheld complaint would have amounted to a statement that broadcasters offering satire, humour and drama may not offend against the religious convictions of others," the authority's board said.
"In our view, this would be an unreasonable limitation of a broadcaster's right to free speech, which includes the right to satirise religion."
The board said there was no doubt South Park treated "aspects of religion revered by Catholics" in a disrespectful and cavalier fashion.
"But showing disrespect, in our view, does not amount to the sort of vicious or vitriolic attack normally associated with the denigration standard."
Reporting on political advertising, it said the Maori Party complained about a Labour Party advert during last year's election campaign that said it had voted with National 227 times.
The Maori Party said the figure was inaccurate and the authority upheld the complaint - it discovered the party voted the same way as National at least 277 times or 50 more than the 227 cited in Labour's advert.
During the 2005-06 financial year the authority received 153 complaints compared with 184 and 196 in the previous two years. It upheld 19 and dismissed 127, and the rest were dealt with indirectly.
- NZPA
