Madonna has accused the media of "doing a great disservice to all the orphans of Africa" following its coverage of the Malawian adoption saga.
Speaking publicly for the first time since adopting a one-year-old child from the impoverished African nation, the pop diva hit out at the media for turning the incident into a "negative thing".Madonna was interviewed by Oprah Winfrey, telling the talk-show queen that she was drawn to the child - David Banda - when she was him being cradled by an eight-year-old HIV-positive girl.
"I became transfixed by him ... but I didn't yet know I was going to adopt him," she told Winfrey.
Madonna explained how she was shocked at what she described as a "state of emergency" in Malawi. "As far as I'm concerned, the adoption laws have to be changed to suit that state of emergency," she said. "I think if everybody went there, they'd want to bring one of those children home with them and give them a better life."
She went on to accuse the media of putting words into the mouth of Yohane Banda, the boy's father. Earlier this week, Banda told the Reuters news agency he did not understand what was happening to his son.
"I sat in that room, I looked into that man's eyes," she told Winfrey. "I believe that the press is manipulating this information out of him.
"I believe ... he's been terrorised by the media. They have asked him things, repeatedly, and they have put words in his mouth. They have spun a story that is completely false."
