Wellington newspaper The Dominion Post will publish one of the Danish cartoons which have triggered strife overseas because they caricature the Prophet Mohammad.
A number of European newspapers have published the images, first published by a Danish newspaper in September.
The cartoons were reprinted earlier this month in a Christian magazine in Norway, and on Wednesday were published by French newspaper France-Soir.
The publications have triggered outrage and protests in some Muslim countries.
Dominion Post editor and chair of the Commonwealth Press Union, Tim Pankhurst, told Radio New Zealand that while a final decision was still to be made, the paper would probably print at least one of the cartoons tomorrow.
He said it was an issue of solidarity and supporting press freedom, and he was not setting out to deliberately antagonise the Muslim communities of New Zealand.
Islam considers images of prophets disrespectful and caricatures of them blasphemous.
Two armed Palestinian groups have threatened to target Danes, Norwegians and French nationals in the Middle East, and Palestinian gunmen briefly surrounded European Union offices in Gaza to demand an apology over the cartoons.
Hundreds of people demonstrated in Pakistan on Thursday, chanting "Death to Denmark" and burning Danish and French flags.
And the controversy has gutted the Saudi Arabian business of Danish dairy company Arla, which has had to close its factory in Riyadh, after many supermarkets asked it to take its produce.
New Zealand's Fonterra dairy company has run advertisements to say the milk in its products does not come from Denmark.
