Oz, underground magazine, Michael Argyle, Richard Neville, United Kingdom

Oz was a highly controversial underground magazine that sprang up in the United Kingdom between February 1967 and the winter of 1973 forty-eight numbers were produced and was the subject of a notable trial. It derived its name from the fact that most of the editors came from Australia, Oz was openly alternative in advocating sex and drugs as forms of liberation, as well as being satirical and subversive in its campaigns against the police, the judiciary, and the establishment . A prosecution for conspiring to corrupt public morals was brought against a particularly outrageous number of the magazine, Oz 28, the Schoolkids Issue, published in May 1970. The verdict of the jury on the main charge was not guilty, but they found the defendants guilty of publishing an obscene magazine and of sending indecent articles through the post. Judge Michael Argyle, Q.C.sentence the editor Richard Neville to a term of fifteen months in prison and twelve months and nine months respectively for his associates, provoking outrage from many quarters, including several authors and commentators not sympathetic with Oz itself. Our Picture Shows: Demonstrators burning a effigy of the judge outside the Old Bailey following the sentencing at the end of the trial. 5th August 1971.