The Home Ministry has accused The Edge Media Group of publishing articles on 1MDB, which have created confusion and sown doubts on the government and financial institutions.
"We are also accused of relying on an Internet portal for our articles," the group's publisher and chief executive officer Ho Kay Tat said in a press statement today.
This was conveyed to the company in a letter dated June 29 by the Home Ministry.
The Edge Media Group publishes The Edge Malaysia and The Edge Financial Daily .
The company has been asked to reply in seven days on why action should not be taken against the two publications under the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.
Ho ( photo ) said that his company has sought a extension to the deadline in order to prepare the necessary reply.
"We have been reporting about 1MDB since it was known as Terengganu Investment Authority (TIA) and in the last six months we have published more than 300 articles on 1MDB from various sources – Bernama , Bloomberg , Reuters , The Business Times Singapore , Euromoney – and our own reporting from the media channels in The Edge Media Group.
"We will be compiling them to help any investigation into our alleged offences. We base our articles on carefully evaluated evidence.
"The ministry must clarify which of our articles are wrong and create confusion and doubts about the government.
"The Edge believes our articles to be truthful. To date, not a single party that we have mentioned in the articles has taken legal action against us.
"As we have stated previously, we stand by the articles we have published and we intend to show it."
Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi has said action will be taken against The Edge following the arrest of former PetroSaudi International Ltd officer Xavier Andre Justo by the Thai police.
Although the Thai police are investigating Justo for blackmailing his former employer, Malaysian authorities are claiming that Justo had supplied " tampered " company documents to The Edge and whistleblower website Sarawak Report to discredit 1MDB.
1MDB and PetroSaudi were involved in a short-lived joint-venture between 2009 and 2010.
Putrajaya claims that the money invested in the JV project had turned into a US$1.9 billion loan to PetroSaudi, but critics suspect there was foul play.
