The Moroccan authorities have called for the jailing of two journalists who published popular jokes about religion, sex and politics.
The authorities removed the magazine, Nichane, which means "as it is", from sale last month after Casablanca's state prosecutor took legal action, saying the jokes were an attack on Islam.
At Monday's hearing, the prosecutor said Driss Ksikes, the editor, and reporter Sanaa al-Aji should be jailed for up to five years, fined up to 100,000 dirhams ($12,000) and barred from working as journalists.
Ksikes said the jokes were there merely to accompany an analysis of Moroccan society.
"It appears that today we are being pursued over the jokes themselves, which were not of our making. It's a little absurd," he said.
The verdict is due on January 15.
The press freedom group Reporters Without Borders said the Nichane ban was politically motivated, with the government keen to prove its religious credentials before elections this year in which an opposition Islamist party may make strong gains.
Large fines
Morocco's press is viewed abroad as one of the freest in the Arab world, and several independent titles regularly criticise government officials and attack corruption or nepotism.
But journalists can still be hauled before a judge for undermining the monarchy, the king's role as guardian of Islam or questioning Morocco's "territorial integrity", meaning its claim over the Western Sahara, which it annexed in 1975.
Government critics say the authorities still keep the press in check by handing out hefty fines to publications that push the boundaries too far.
Another magazine, Le Journal Hebdomadaire, has said it faces closure if the courts enforce the country's biggest fine yet for defamation.
The magazine had suggested that a report highly critical of the Western Sahara separatist Polisario movement had been made at the behest of the Moroccan authorities.