"Syrian media wanted to ask one question but were rejected. Every time they allow only certain media to ask questions… The host's aide told me that I would not be allowed to ask a question because I covered military operations of Syrian servicemen," Mortada told Sputnik.
The HNC refuted the allegations of bias and explained the rejection by the regulations of the press conference.
"The HNC usually takes 3 questions as the UN allow us 15-20 minutes. We do not discriminate on the questions and always allow Syrian state media a question. We took a question on Friday from Syrian state TV Sana. There are others who also want to ask questions, so we have to share this with the international media present," HNC spokesman Salem Meslet told Sputnik.
According to Yara Sharif, spokeswoman for de Mistura, the United Nations did not impose any restrictions on participants of press conferences.
"No," Sharif told Sputnik, asked whether the United Nations imposes any time limits for the delegations' stakeouts.
"Today we did not interfere in anything. And usually we don't. As the UN we just provide them the place and we announce when it is going to be. But we do not control how many questions they take or anything else," she added.
The fourth round of UN-backed intra-Syrian talks between the government and opposition factions kicked off in Geneva on Thursday.
