This is the riveting new Netflix true crime documentary everyone’s talking about right now

If you had to identify one of the most inhospitable places in the world to a free press, where committing acts of journalism can mean that your life is the price of a good story, Mexico would surely be somewhere near the top of the list. In fact, data from the Committee to Project Journalists shows that Mexico was the deadliest country in the world for reporters last year, accounting for some 30% of journalists killed in 2020. Last year saw nine journalists killed there. That number included three reporters shot dead within 10 days in the closing months of the year. Lest you think this is a new phenomenon, though, a new Netflix documentary -- Private Network: Who Killed Manuel Buendia? -- will encourage you to reconsider that notion.

According to the CPJ data, at least 120 reporters have been killed in Mexico since 2000. Going back farther than that, though, takes you to Buendia. By all accounts, he was a dogged, fearless chronicler of corruption who worked for the daily news Excélsior -- one of the most read in Mexico City. The Netflix documentary released earlier this month tracks the circumstances surrounding him being shot to death outside his office in 1984. And why this tragedy still matters, almost 40 years later.