The Slovenian Journalists Association (DNS) has launched a platform for reporting attacks on journalists, whether physical or verbal.

The platform will help to systematically keep track of attacks on journalists that go beyond well-argued criticism of their work and to raise public awareness of the problems journalists face, the DNS said.

Such a platform proved to be necessary as political and public sentiment towards the work of journalists has been increasingly restrictive and hostile in the last two years, the DNS said.

According to its president Petra Lesjak Tusek, the platform will also help analyse attacks on journalists as a phenomenon and respond to problems.

It could be a “compass” that will warn about intolerable practices which should be condemned and raise public awareness that such actions are unacceptable, she said.

Slovenian journalists say the situation deteriorated last year with the new Janez Jansa Cabinet. The prime minister often attacks journalists and media he claims are staffed by members of the “old” regime.

At the start of his term, he announced a sort of war on those media, claiming that 80% of mainstream media is controlled by the left. Jansa has been especially critical of the public broadcaster and the Slovenian Press Agency, which the government stopped funding as a public service six months ago.