Military prosecutors in Egypt are to try a newspaper editor and a journalist over comments in an article on torture attributed to a military official, a military source said on Sunday.

Journalist Adel Hammuda and editor Rasha Azab from the independent weekly Al-Fagr were questioned by the prosecutor on Sunday and will appear before a military tribunal at a date yet to be determined, the source said.

Azab told AFP that the article in question contained first-hand accounts from people claiming they had been tortured by the military, as well as statements from an army officer.

Military sources said the officer in question denied making the statements published, which he said were "unfounded."

If convicted, Hammuda could face a jail term and Azab could be fined.

Several journalists have been interrogated by the army recently over their work, prompting the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) to say Egypt's military is censoring and harassing the press.

The Egyptian Organisation of Human Rights on Sunday denounced measures taken by the military against journalists, calling them "a new violation of freedom of opinion and expression."

"They are also a violation of the achievements of the January 25 revolution," the group said, and urged the army to stop referring civilians to military courts and summoning journalists.

The military has denied that it censors the media.

Power was transferred to the armed forces by former president Hosni Mubarak upon his ouster on February 11 after mass protests against his 30-year rule.

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