Ryanair bars journalists from AGM as pilot dispute rumbles on

Ryanair Monday barred all media from reporting at its annual shareholder meeting next week, saying the move is to allow shareholders to raise matters freely with the board without discussions being "distorted". Journalists generally report from annual general meetings of publicly listed companies and Ryanair CE Michael O'Leary usually speaks to the media at press briefings for each year's meeting. Ryanair said there would be no press briefing this year. The carrier has suffered its worst ever strikes this summer as it struggled to quell protests over slow progress in negotiating collective labour agreements with pilots and cabin crew. Ryanair's AGM last year was dominated by the cancellation of 2,000 flights because of rostering problems that sparked the staff unrest. That meeting was open to the media. <br/>