He said media practitioners should use the existing space well to cultivate pure values that would educate the public as the quality of society lies in its reading material.

Citing the writing style of media practitioners 20 years ago, Maszlee said the writings then provided had a positive impact on readers.

“This is unlike today where news headlines are more controversial and sensational in nature,” he said in his speech at the launch of the Read @ Uni Higher Education Institution programme at the Universiti Teknologi Mara here today.

He added that newspapers during that time played an important role not only as news disseminators on things that were happening in and outside the country, but often used words that were “buried” in the Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka dictionary.