The Malaysian Insight, successor to now-defunct news portal The Malaysian Insider, has been urged to reveal its financial sources by its former publisher.

"He (The Malaysian Insider's former editor Jahabar Sadiq) has said that his financial sources are private equity, businessmen and loans.

"For transparency and in the public interest, Jahabar should provide their names and not let the matter be shrouded in mystery," The Edge Media Group publisher Ho Kay Tat said in a comment published by Singapore's The Straits Times.

Jahabar had earlier reportedly said that it had taken him 10 months "to convince some private equity and businessmen to give a loan of sorts" to launch The Malaysian Insight, which will go online by the end of this month.

He had declined to identify these financial backers in the same report...