The system is open, so journalists at other newspapers can read the comments and weigh in, too.
The judges rejected the demand, meaning all of the three-week trial will be open to journalists.
Nevertheless, Mr. Mikdad used the occasion of Mr. Six's release to announce that "our border crossings are open to journalists who are objective and interested in truth".
The meeting, which was held at an air-compressor manufacturing plant in Davidson, N.C., was not open to journalists, nor was it broadcast on the World Wide Web.
The preliminary hearings are to continue Wednesday, but it is unclear when the actual trial, which court officials have promised will be open to journalists, will begin.
On 9 October, the governor of Papua, Lukas Enembe, claimed that the province was now open to journalists and human rights monitors.
"You're talking more about products," Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Renault, said on Tuesday, the first day the show was open to journalists.
An official in Kabul, the capital, said the proceedings would be open to journalists, relatives of the two American women and Western diplomats.
Although state media have described Bo's trial in courtroom number five as "open", foreign journalists who applied for seats were told that they had already been filled.
"And I was very open with journalists, so they didn't try to fill in gaps in the story, which meant a platform of mutual respect was established from the outset," Batty will say.
