Peruvian television host Magaly Medina has harshly criticised influencer Alejandra Baigorria after a German news outlet featured her African humanitarian trip video as an example of poverty exploitation.
The controversy escalated after international broadcaster Deutsche Welle used footage of Baigorria in a report detailing a ban introduced by the military government of Burkina Faso. The West African nation prohibited social media creators from photographing impoverished children to generate digital traffic, aiming to protect the dignity and privacy of its citizens.
International report sparks local backlash
The inclusion of the Peruvian personality in the international broadcast triggered immediate debate across Peru. While some social media users defended her efforts to raise awareness, others questioned her motives, prompting Medina to address the situation directly during her entertainment program Magaly TV, La Firme.
Medina, a veteran broadcast journalist known in Peru as La Urraca, strongly disapproved of Baigorria sharing images of minors without protecting their identities. She noted that the influencer appeared joyful in the recordings, calling it inappropriate when contrasted with the difficult reality facing the children.
Speaking on her show, Medina said that displaying the children was like rejoicing while doing charity with minors who were not responsible for being born in the poorest regions of Africa. She added that several other digital creators were engaging in the exact same practice.
Medina questions motives behind online charity
The presenter stressed that genuine acts of generosity do not require media attention or camera crews. She argued that individuals who truly wish to help do not need to advertise their actions or project an image of benevolence while delivering aid to starving children.
Medina also expressed secondhand embarrassment that Baigorria was chosen as a prominent visual example in the international television report. She described the explicit public exposure of vulnerable minors as indignifying, stating that influencers must not seek online likes on the back of children suffering from extreme malnutrition.
The host backed the legislative efforts to safeguard children, stating that minors did not choose to enter the world under conditions of severe poverty and neglect.
Beauty brand mission to Malawi
Baigorria, an entrepreneur and reality television personality often called La Gringa de Gamarra, traveled to Malawi in southeastern Africa in May 2026. She made the journey as an ambassador for a beauty brand shortly after her husband, Said Palao, was involved in a widely publicised media scandal in Argentina.
Following her return from Malawi, a landlocked nation in southeastern Africa, Baigorria published a video reflecting on her experience alongside her colleagues. She described the trip as one of the most challenging yet rewarding experiences of her life, adding that it allowed her to observe the struggles of children facing hunger firsthand.
The video divided viewers online. Critics argued the content served as a self-serving strategy to boost social media engagement, while supporters asserted that Baigorria used her large digital platform to draw attention to ongoing humanitarian crises in Africa.
