Malaysiakini will adopt a monochrome website throughout the day as a sign of protest against the arrest of five colleagues from The Malaysian Insider .

According to Malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran, the arrests were unwarranted as the police could have recorded statements from the five individuals without denying them their civil liberties.

"It seems the authorities were out to take advantage of the situation to send a message to media practitioners and cause a chilling effect.

"We as media practitioners must show that we will not tolerate such high-handed measures," he said.

On Monday, the police and the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had raided TMI's office and arrested three key editorial staff, who were held overnight.

Two more were arrested the following day. They too were held overnight.

Malaysiakini has adopted a monochrome website as a sign of protest before. The last incident happened in 2012, after a large number of media practitioners were assaulted by the police during the Bersih 3.0 rally.