Parliament must hold an inquiry into the media because self-regulation is not working, African National Congress (ANC) chief whip in the National Assembly Jackson Mthembu said in Johannesburg on Sunday.

"Other players, including the Independent Media stable [have] also agreed that self-regulatory environment is not working," said Mthembu, adding that the ANC was concerned about inaccuracies, one-side reporting, poor ownership transformation and monopolies.

He said print media hardly recognised any achievements by the ANC-led government.

He said when they raise this with the media, they are told "why should we praise a fish for swimming".

However, if the fish does not swim well, "they go to town".

Mthembu was presenting the ANC's discussion document on the media and communications, due to be discussed at its conference later this year.

It was compiled in the context of the impact of media convergence in the fourth industrial revolution.

He said that ANN7 had also withdrawn from the Press Ombudsman system, raising further concerns over whether self-regulation works.

The government felt that the media did not reflect on the positive things government does.

The media was correct to report concerns over whether the South Africa Social Security Agency would be able to pay social grants because the invalid CPS contract was only extended by a Constitutional Court order at the eleventh hour.

However, the fact that the ANC came up with the Sassa grants, was ignored.

"You can't guillotine us for our view. This is how we see you, take it from us."

He said the quickly changing media and communications environment made the completion of the migration from analogue to digital broadcasting even more urgent, so that new media voices can be heard.

A new deadline of 31 December 2018 has been set for full migration to be completed.

This was after South Africa missed the worldwide deadline of June 2015.