The ANC branded the print media "a protection racket" yesterday and urged Parliament to investigate the creation of a "media appeals tribunal" that the party says would make reporters more accountable.

In a discussion document prepared for a policy conference in September, the ANC also proposed that Parliament look into the ownership and control of the print media, which it says is too white and too commercial.

The authors of the document urge the Competition Commission to investigate collusion and price manipulation in the media industry.

In the latest development in its efforts to rein in South Africa's famously free press, the ANC has revived proposals, first made at its 2008 national conference in Polokwane, for tougher sanctions against reporters who get it wrong.

The document does not specify the sanctions that would be imposed, but ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said recently that the party would call for fines and imprisonment for false reporting.

The government has tabled a Protection of Information Bill that media analysts say could kill investigative journalism, and a Protection of Private Information Bill that would also curb the work of reporters trying to probe beyond the public statements put out by the government.

In the discussion document, the ANC says it has a responsibility to the media industry to encourage the print sector to "shape up".

"A cursory scan of the print media reveals an astonishing degree of dishonesty, lack of professional integrity and lack of independence," the document says.

"We're very disturbed about the intention to renew the calls for a media appeals tribunal," said Raymond Louw, chairman of the Press Council. "Our experience as journalists is that, wherever this kind of structure has been created anywhere in the world, its intention has been to control the media and to instill a chilling fear of severe penalties in journalists."

The SA National Editors' Forum condemned the proposal in a statement issued after its annual meeting at the weekend.

"Sanef points out that the proposed tribunal would go against the existing system of self-regulation, which involves the media and members of the public, and would be unconstitutional."

The ANC document argues that radio and television have been transformed more effectively since the end of white rule than newspapers.

It attributes this to state intervention through legislation.