Salleh: Sarawak Report aims at spreading slander

He said the news portal aimed to spread slander to undermine the reputation of the country's leaders.

"Sarawak Report is an online paper which has only one goal - to slander our leaders.

"As such, the people cannot accept its reports outright because their motive is to topple the country''s leadership," he said to reporters at the Kembara Negaraku ''bubur lambuk'' distribution event at KL Sentral here.

Salleh was asked to comment on a report of the news portal that Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah, the chief prosecutor in the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim sodomy case, was paid a sum of money channelled through an account of the Prime Minister and allegedly from 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB).

Salleh said Lester Melanyi, the former editor of the portal, had admitted that 90 per cent of the news reports of Sarawak Report was false and had been manipulated.

"We are aware that some of the documents released by Sarawak Report had been tampered with and their authenticity is questionable.

"As such, we Malaysians should not rush into accepting these reports because they are not true at all," he said.

At the event earlier, Salleh said Kembara Negaraku was a programme undertaken in line with the Negaraku initiative, anchored on patriotism, mooted by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.

He said the programme aimed to convey messages and activities to inspire patriotism, pride, passion and aspiration for Malaysia, besides engaging the local community at Ramadan bazaars, transportation hubs and other locations across the country.