Biz reporters barred from Boston Scientific annual meeting

Robert Weisman of the Boston Globe reports that Boston Scientific, which recently posted a loss of $1.6 billion, has barred business reporters from attending its annual meeting Tuesday morning.

Reporters had previously been allowed at the meeting.

Weisman writes, “The annual meeting in Boston will be the first since J. Raymond Elliott took over last July as president and chief executive of the Natick medical device company. The company paid Elliott about $33.5 million in total compensation in 2009, according to a regulatory filing, the largest payout to any business executive in the region last year.

“Tomorrow’s meeting of stockowners ‘is not open to the media,’ said Paul Donovan, senior vice president of Boston Scientific. He declined to say who made the decision to close the meeting to reporters or why. Past Boston Scientific shareholder meetings were open to the press.

“‘I think it’s not the best practice to close a meeting,’ said Beth M. Young, senior research associate at the Corporate Library, a Portland, Maine, research firm that tracks shareholder issues. ‘It sets a tone and creates a feeling of distrust and secretiveness, which is not what a company wants to do when it’s facing challenges.'”

Read more here.