A spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland has said section 65 of the Broadcasting Act 2001 meant broadcasters had to be very vigilant about advertising which could be construed as promoting religion.
Under the terms of the 1988 Broadcasting Act, there was an outright ban on such advertising, with no room for interpretation.
However the wording of section 65 of the Act was such that legal advice had to be sought on most occasions before it could be decided whether to ban or permit such advertising.
She was commenting following a decision by the commission and RTÉ not to broadcast an advertisement for the Irish Catholic newspaper as it contained the words "these are hard times for the Catholic Church, so hard that it's easy to forget all the good the church does".
This was interpreted by lawyers for both the commission and RTÉ as promoting religion, which would be in breach of the Act.
The broadcasting commission spokeswoman said that it had informed the Irish Catholic it could not accept the advertisement as written, but had offered to discuss a revised script. The offer was not taken up, she said.
Any proposed changes in the law on the matter, which currently meant there was "a partial ban" on such advertising, was a matter for the legislature, she said. The Broadcasting Commission of Ireland was "unfortunately" not in the position to make such changes, but had to implement what they were advised by lawyers to do.
It was "more conscious of the responsibility placed on us [by the 2001 Act\], and to keep in line with the legislation", she said. It was a "very tricky" situation and "came down to language". There was often "a tenuous link" between saying something was so and promoting religion, she said.
An RTÉ spokesman said that whereas it was prepared to carry an advertisement for the Irish Catholic "as the publication falls within section 65 of the 2001 Broadcasting Act", in the opinion of RTÉ's copy clearance committee, the script submitted by the Irish Catholic "does address the merits of adherence [to the Catholic church\] and therefore cannot be broadcast."
The spokesman said it was his belief that RTÉ and the Irish Catholic could agree wording for an advertisement "provided it is restricted to stating that the newspaper is available for sale and listing its content, [and] providing the latter does not address the merits of adherence".
