The Italian state-run television network, RIA, has seen controversy over its failure to broadcast an exclusive dialogue with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Monica Magioni, a former Middle East correspondent and head of the TV network, gave a interview, but no news program or network has yet agreed to his broadcast.
"The dialogue was conducted without a mandate from any program affiliated with the RIA network," according to the network's chairman, Fabrizio Salini, in a statement.
According to a statement attributed to the Syrian presidency published by the "Syriana Analysys" website on his Facebook page, Magioni met President Assad on November 26.
The statement said that the dialogue should have been broadcast on the second of December simultaneously on both the "Ray News 24" news channel and the Syrian national media outlets, but the Italians asked to postpone the appointment several times.
According to the Syrian presidency, the Italian network did not offer any new date for "broadcasting the dialogue and no explanations were provided, which may indicate that the dialogue will not be broadcast."
The Syrian presidency described the matter as another example of Western attempts to conceal the truth about the situation in Syria and said that the Syrian media will broadcast the dialogue today at 1900 GMT if the Italian network continues to postpone it.
A spokeswoman said the Italian network was still discussing what to do with the dialogue. The USAGRA association, which includes journalists working for the network, called for clarification of this "embarrassing issue".