N'DJAMENA, Aug 8, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - The editor in chief of Chad's largest online news portal has been arrested, a local media association said Wednesday, denouncing his detention as "an act of intimidation".

The Organisation for Online Media (AMET) said that Badour Oumar Ali, editor of Tchadinfos.com, had been summoned for a meeting with judicial police.

"Shortly after his arrival, he was taken away by armed and masked men and driven to the General Directorate of the National Security Agency (ANS) in an unmarked vehicle," AMET said, citing a journalist who was present at the scene.

The organisation went on to decry the "act of intimidation and kidnapping, which constitutes a serious attack on the freedom of the press and on fundamental human rights".

Access to Tchadinfos was suspended for four days late last month after it refused to comply with what it said was a request from former presidential adviser Abakar Manany to remove content about him, AMET said at the time.

According to AMET, Tchadinfos had rejected the demand, insisting the articles concerned were all "factual".

Tchadinfo director Mamadou Djimtebaye accused Manany at the time of copying the offending articles onto a blog he created, then contacting the news site's host and claiming it had stolen his content.

Manany's lawyer, Jean-Marc Fedida, has denied both the existence of the blog and his client's involvement in taking Tchadinfos offline.

Reporters Without Borders said at the time that the suspension should never have happened, characterising it as a means of putting pressure on the media.

In addition to its website, Tchadinfos also runs a radio station and a television channel.