The Edge today said it will no longer refer to PetroSaudi International's leaked emails in its reportage of the 1MDB issue after Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi threatened action against the news outfit.
"We will defer to the home minister and will not refer to the emails again in any of our reports until the air is cleared about them.
" The Edge welcomes any comprehensive investigation into this matter and will offer assistance to any authorities tasked with verifying the authenticity of the information we previously used," it said in a statement today.
Zahid ( photo ) had claimed that the leaked emails were tampered with to put 1MDB in bad light.
PetroSaudi's leaked information, which included its communications with 1MDB, had put the latter in a spot as it revealed questionable fund transfers to a company allegedly controlled by Malaysian billionaire Jho Low, who is close to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's family.
The claim that the emails were tampered with was based on the words of an unnamed security expert, The Edge noted.
Leaked emails are not the source
On Wednesday, the New Straits Times quoted Protection Group International, which was hired by PetroSaudi to investigate the leak, claiming the emails published by whistleblower site Sarawak Report were tampered.
Nonetheless, The Edge reiterated the leaked PetroSaudi emails are not the source of 1MDB's problems.
The Edge added that it had published some of the emails this year to accompany reports on the dealings between 1MDB and PetroSaudi that went back to 2009 and 2011.
"Very little was known about what had happened back then and those emails and other documents helped us piece together the chain of events surrounding 1MDB’s US$1.83 billion (RM6.8 billion) deals with PetroSaudi.
"We were not cavalier in our approach and we only published what we believed were authentic after very careful consideration.
"Throughout these past five months, no one has challenged the authenticity of the emails and we have offered our help to all the authorities looking into the problems at 1MDB, including passing them what we have," it said.
The Edge also reiterated that its reports on 1MDB were based on the principles of public interest.
"With over RM40 billion of public money at stake, 1MDB and its struggles to service its massive debts is the single most important public issue we face today," it said.
