The Catholic Church fears a High Court decision to reject its complaint about South Park's "Bloody Mary" episode will have a "downstream effect" on society.The church has warned that it will continue to watch the media's "standards of fairness and decency".
High Court Justice John Wild dismissed an appeal from the Catholic Bishops Conference this week against a Broadcasting Standards Authority ruling.
It complained to the authority last year after C4 screened the cartoon, which showed a statue of the Virgin Mary squirting menstrual blood on the Pope and a cardinal.
Judge Wild ordered the bishops to pay the costs of the case, though he noted that might be viewed "as adding insult to deep injury".
Catholic spokeswoman Lyndsay Freer said yesterday that the church was "surprised, shocked and disappointed" by the High Court decision.
She asked: "Will it encourage the less responsible sections of the media to push the limits of decency and good taste beyond bounds that are acceptable to the majority of New Zealanders?"
In his decision, Justice Wild said the bishops' appeal was driven by a "deep and real sense of outrage", but that outrage was not shared by the wider community.
Mrs Freer said the judge had not referred to "what we thought was a significant factor in the debate – namely the denigration of women".
Clare Bradley, legal counsel for C4 owner MediaWorks, said costs awarded under High Court rules would be about $8000 to $10,000, though the actual costs incurred by both sides would be "much more substantial than that".
Mrs Freer said the bishops had no official reaction to having to pay the costs, as the organisation had not yet been formally told to hand over the money.
"Certainly the church is not in the business of contempt of court. If the judge has ordered costs, he's ordered costs."
She would not say how much the church had spent on the case. "We did receive a reasonable amount of donated money toward it from various sources."
The church has now exhausted its legal options under the Broadcasting Act.
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