Earlier this year, a sharp spike in killings of Mexican journalists captured headlines worldwide. One of those killed was Margarito Martinez — a longtime photojournalist who was murdered in his hometown, Tijuana. Margaritos’s death shocked his colleagues, and as they demanded justice, many pointed to a relatively new source of danger for journalists in Mexico: anonymous Facebook groups. 

This episode was produced by Adriana Tapia. Special thanks to David Mora, Ani Ucar, and Gabriela Martinez, who originally reported this story for Vice News Tonight.

This story was made in collaboration with our colleagues at El Hilo, VICE News and Radio Ambulante’s weekly Spanish-language news show  — you can find their version of this story, in Spanish, wherever you get your podcasts. 

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VICE News Reports is hosted by Arielle Duhaime-Ross and produced by Sophie Kazis, Jen Kinney, and Adriana Tapia. Our senior producer is Sam Greenspan. Our supervising producers are Ashley Cleek and Stephanie Kariuki. Our associate producers are Steph Brown, Sam Eagan, and Adreanna Rodriguez. Sound design and music composition by Steve Bone, Evan Sutton, Pran Bandi, and Kyle Murdock. Mixing by Evan Sutton.

Our executive producer is Adizah Eghan. And the VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn. Janet Lee is Senior Production Manager for VICE Audio. Fact Checking by Nicole Pasulka. Our theme music is by Steve Bone.

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