About a week ago, I posted about about two Moroccan journalists facing charges for an article on (wait for it) ... jokes.

This BBC feature provides some context.

Some excerpts:

Courtroom number eight in the Casablanca High Court is an imposing place.

Two portraits hang on the wood panelled walls above the seats reserved for the presiding judges.

The pictures are of the King of Morocco, Mohammed VI and his now deceased father, Hassan II.

The one of Mohammed, a shy but fairly genial young man, shows him smiling.

The one of Hassan shows him frowning.

The pictures tell the story of Morocco over the last half century.

While the seven years of Mohammed VI's rule have seen modernisation, liberalisation and reform of the media, the days of King Hassan were ones of fear.

They are known in Morocco as the "years of lead" - lead because of the heaviness in people's hearts, the lead of the darkness they saw around them and the lead of the bullets that shot them. ...

In the "years of lead" no one spoke out of turn and everyone had respect for their monarch... but not many people laughed.

Humour and jokes were in short supply.

Mr Ksikes (L) and Ms al-Aji (R) with their publisher (C) in court

But on Monday the judge did something incredible. He read out a joke about King Hassan.

It went along the lines of: "Did you hear the one about the king, God and Heaven and Hell..."

The joke was written down by Sanaa al-Aji and edited by Driss Ksikes, but they did not invent the joke.

It has been heard in streets and cafes up and down the country.

This and other gags were the evidence presented against the two journalists in what is in effect a blasphemy trial.

"What made you want to write this joke?" asked the examining judge.

"Is nothing sacred? Do you not love your country?"