Chad Press and Publishing Agency (ATPE)

Agence Tchadienne de Presse et d’Édition (ATPE) is Chad’s state press agency, tracing its origins to the Agence Tchadienne de Presse (ATP) created by Ordonnance No. 31/PR/INFO of 15 July 1966, and headquartered in N’Djamena. The agency operates under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication and describes its core mission as the collection, processing, and distribution of written news, photographic, and digital content through a network of regional correspondents, for national and international subscribers and partners.

Media assets

News agency: ATPE

Ownership and governance

ATPE traces its origins to the Agence Tchadienne de Presse (ATP), created by Ordonnance No. 31/PR/INFO of 15 July 1966, six years after Chadian independence from France on 11 August 1960. The agency has subsequently evolved through institutional reorganisations into its current form as the Agence Tchadienne de Presse et d’Édition. ATPE operates as a public institution under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication; senior service appointments are made through state and executive instruments, including presidential decrees and ministerial orders.

In June 2022, ATPE staff organised a café de presse at the Maison des Médias to publicly raise concerns about working and living conditions of agents; personnel delegate Blaise Djimadoum Ngarngoune indicated that several points of contention had been resolved through engagement with management.

On 29 April 2025, Hissein Bosquet Khamis Togoï officially took office as Director General of ATPE, succeeding Hadjé Bintou Khachallah. At the handover ceremony at the agency’s headquarters, the new Director General acknowledged ATPE’s financial difficulties, organisational weaknesses, and the urgent need for modernisation, and outlined an ambition to position the agency as a credible and modern institution capable of responding to a rapidly evolving media ecosystem, with expanded national coverage, improved content quality, and increased adaptation to digital tools.

The supervisory ministry is the Ministry of Communication, headed since February 2025 by Gassim Chérif Mahamat, a journalist and former political-military movement spokesperson, who serves as Minister of Communication and government spokesperson in the Halina II government, replacing Abderaman Koulamallah. The Chadian political system is dominated by President Maréchal Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, in office since the death of his father, President Idriss Déby Itno, on 20 April 2021. A new Constitution was approved by referendum in December 2023; in 2025, constitutional amendments extended the presidential term from five to seven years and removed term limits, with the National Assembly approving the changes on 16 September 2025 and the law promulgated in October 2025.

Source of funding and budget

ATPE appears structurally dependent on state budget support channelled via the Ministry of Communication, with possible limited revenues or exchange value from subscribers and partners. The agency’s institutional finances have been a recurring source of public concern: the 29 April 2025 inaugural speech by Director General Hissein Bosquet Khamis Togoï explicitly acknowledged ATPE’s financial difficulties and the urgent need for modernisation. No detailed, standalone ATPE budget or audited financial statements were identified in publicly accessible sources.

The agency’s operational capacity has been historically constrained by ageing infrastructure, limited regional correspondent funding, and the small Chadian advertising market.

Editorial independence

There are no statutory provisions, regulatory mechanisms, or external evaluation procedures that protect or assess ATPE’s editorial independence from executive influence. State Media Monitor review indicates that ATPE’s output is dominated by official, ministerial, and government-facing content, with limited evidence of independent accountability journalism or opposition visibility.

AI and digital policy

ATPE maintains an active digital corporate presence at atpe.td with a categorised news interface covering national affairs, politics, society, sports, and culture. The agency also operates a Facebook page (@atpelinfo) and maintains a LinkedIn corporate profile. In the new Director General’s inaugural address on 29 April 2025, Hissein Bosquet Khamis Togoï explicitly highlighted the need for “increased adaptation to digital tools” as part of ATPE’s modernisation agenda. No publicly available ATPE policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified.

May 2026