''Canal Livre'' was a popular

news program News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either video production, produced local programming, ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. It was presented by the former police officer and former politician

Wallace Souza Wallace Souza (12 August 1958 – 27 July 2010) was a Brazilian television presenter and politician. He was an elected member of the Legislative Assembly of Amazonas until his expulsion in October 2009. Souza was commonly known for presenting ...

and was the most popular show in the city of

Manaus Manaus () is the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Amazonas. It is the seventh-largest city in Brazil, with an estimated 2020 population of 2,219,580 distributed over a land area of about . Located at the east center of the s ...

. Souza's popularity as host of ''Canal Livre'' saw him get elected on three occasions to political office. The show remained on air until 2009 and came to worldwide attention in August 2009 when it was revealed that the presenter had been accused of hiring hitmen to carry out the crimes his show was documenting. Souza was accused of involvement in at least five murders from 2007 to February 2009, relating to the deaths of people who stole cars and dealt drugs. It is thought the murders were commissioned to increase the program's rating even further and to eliminate all opposition. The format was very similar to the popular

SBT sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala and Java projects, similar to Apache's Maven and Gradle. Its main features are: *Native support for compiling Scala code and integrating with many Scala test frameworks *Continuous compilation, t ...

's TV show ''

Programa do Ratinho '' Programa do Ratinho'' is a Brazilian television program displayed by SBT sbt is an open-source build tool for Scala (programming language), Scala and Java (programming language), Java projects, similar to Apache Software Foundation, Apac ...

''. In 2013 the program returned to the air under the title ''Programa Livre'', transmitted through an affiliate of the SBT in Manaus.

Format

The program was a variety show with popular content such as music, interviews and humor but was also a news program about crime. ''Canal Livre'' detailed the murders of various criminal figures, with the camera crews regularly arriving on the crime scene before police. It is this which drew suspicion from detectives who investigated the role of the show in these deaths. Souza's role was as a studio presenter preaching about crime and broadcasting what was deemed "exclusive" coverage of crimes. However one of the things that more even leveraged the success was Gil, a stage entertainer and

sfiha Sfiha or sfeeha ( ar, صفيحة, ṣafīḥa) is a dish consisting of flatbread cooked with a minced meat topping, often lamb flavored with onion, tomato, pine nuts, and spices. It is traditionally found in the countries of the Levant, and is cl ...

seller (who suffered

bullying Bullying is the use of force, coercion, hurtful teasing or threat, to abuse, aggressively dominate or intimidate. The behavior is often repeated and habitual. One essential prerequisite is the perception (by the bully or by others) of an imba ...

constantly being called as Rogério and subject to homophobic slurs) and their fights with the puppet Galerito. In early of 2016 these scenes showing the fights between Gil vs. Galerito eventually become an

Internet meme An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...

, mainly in

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Investigation

One of the crimes reported on the show involved a reporter walking through a forest to examine a burning corpse, telling viewers: “It smells like a barbecue. It is a man. It has the smell of burning meat. The impression is that it was in the early hours... it was an execution.” Suspicion arose from this when questions were raised about how the reporter knew the time of the murder. Investigators were disrupted by Souza and some had their lives threatened. Souza, however, denied any complicity in the deaths, describing the allegations as "absurd" and saying he tried to fight corruption and

paedophilia Pedophilia ( alternatively spelt paedophilia) is a psychiatric disorder in which an adult or older adolescent experiences a primary or exclusive sexual attraction to prepubescent children. Although girls typically begin the process of puberty ...

among other crimes. Until October 2009, he was not charged with murder because his position as an elected state official granted him parliamentary immunity. But after being expelled from the assembly, he was indicted on multiple charges. Vanessa Lee, the former producer of the program, was arrested in December 2009. Souza hid from the police at first, but later turned himself in. He died of a heart attack in 2010 while awaiting trial.

References

{{Reflist Brazilian television news shows 2009 in Brazil Brazilian television series Amazonas (Brazilian state) Internet memes Portuguese-language television shows