South Africa's media posed a threat to democracy, South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande said in a report in The Times newspaper on Monday.
Expressing strong support for a media tribunal, Nzimande said that journalists were always "looking for bad news out of the African National Congress (ANC) and its alliance partners".
He was speaking at the SACP's 89th anniversary celebrations in Rustenburg in the North West on Sunday.
Nzimande's comments came days after the ruling ANC released a discussion document proposing a tribunal to regulate the print media.
The document questions the efficiency of the self-regulatory Press Ombudsman, which Nzimande described as "toothless and useless".
"We know the importance of free media because it was the communists that went to jail for that," said Nzimande, who is also the Minister of Higher Education and Training.
"But we want a media tribunal that will hold journalists accountable. If there is one serious threat to our democracy, it is a media that is accountable to itself."
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