Madonna has criticised the media coverage of her adoption of a Malawian baby, saying that the criticism is “doing a great disservice” and “Shame on you [the media] for discouraging other people from doing the same thing.”

Talking in a satellite interview on The Oprah Winfrey Show, Madonna said she was “disappointed” by the criticism she had garnered in the media and blamed desperate-for-a-story reporters for convincing baby David’s father, Yohane Banda, to say he didn’t understand that the adoption was permanent.

She explained: “We had a hearing altogether with an interpreter… and he looked into my eyes and said to me that he was very grateful that I was going to give his son a life and that, had he kept his son with him in the village, he would have buried him.”

“I didn’t really need any more confirmation that I was doing the right thing and I had his blessing… I sat in that room, I looked into that man’s eyes.”

“I believe that the press is manipulating this information out of him. I believe, at this point in time, that he’s been terrorized by the media, that they have asked him things repeatedly, that they have put words in his mouth and that they have spun a story that is completely false. This is a simple man… who has nothing and suddenly he’s [besieged] by the media of the world and they have spun things out of control and brought nothing but chaos to his life.”

She added that she would travel back to Malawi at least one a year with David so that he can get to know his native country: “I will give David an education and a chance for a better life and what better way for him to go back and help his own people and help the Malawians and be a voice for his country.”