Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today said The Edge should not ask the ministry which articles had resulted in the media group being given a show-cause letter.

Zahid said this in response to the business paper, which wants the ministry to specify which articles that had allegedly been wrongly reported.

"They should sit down with officers from the ministry's publishing unit then,” Zahid said.

"We are of the opinion that if you eat chillies, you will feel the heat, so there is no need to ask us which articles had involved information that was untrue," he told reporters in Kuala Lumpur.

Zahid added the weekly should know for itself which were the articles in question, based on information received, particularly from PetroSaudi International.

Publisher and chief executive officer of The Edge Media Group Ho Kay Tat ( photo ), who confirmed yesterday that the company had received the show-cause letter, has also asked the ministry to clarify which of its articles were wrong and "created confusion and doubts about the government".

The Edge was slapped with the show-cause letter by the Home Ministry over its reports on 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), reportedly on Monday.

This came after Zahid said The Edge Media Group owner Tong Kooi Ong should be held responsible for "inaccurate reports" on 1MDB.

The minister said the paper should have verified the facts before printing the articles.

Zahid had trained his guns on The Edge following the arrest of a former executive of PetroSaudi International, Xavier Andre Justo, in Thailand for allegedly attempting to blackmail his ex-employer.

In Malaysia, the government's official narrative has been that Justo tampered with leaked email from PetroSaudi to smear 1MDB.

However, whistleblower website Sarawak Report , which had published numerous articles based on the leaked email, claims that the allegations are an attempt to tarnish Justo to deflect criticism on 1MDB.