Harley-Davidson Inc. decided at the last minute to bar media from its annual meeting last Thursday, says its local Milwaukee, WI paper, but the conflict avoidance strategy may backfire, governance experts say.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported that the company told the paper on Wednesday it was not allowing any news media, including the local paper, to attend the meeting, which was held at the Harley-Davidson Museum in Milwaukee.

That was a big change from previous years when it was jamboree-type event, held on Saturdays and attended by hundreds of people, including the media. A Harley-Davidson spokesman told the paper the meeting would only “rehash” information already reported and had been scheduled for Thursday to coincide with Harley’s first “Bike Night” of the year at the museum. The company said in a statement on Thursday, “We also limited access to shareholders, as it is their meeting.”

Shareholder David Livingston, who didn’t attend, wondered, according to a quote in the Journal-Sentinel, whether the company was avoiding confrontation when its performance was down. “CEO compensation? Plant closures? I don’t think they want confrontation,” Livingston is quoted as saying.

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Corporate governance expert Nell Minow, the vice chair of ValueEdge Advisors, told MarketWatch it’s not unusual for companies to claim that the meetings are for investors only.

“But I think that it is best practice for them to allow press in so that investors who cannot be there in person can learn about the sole opportunity shareholders have to see the board and executives in person, how they present themselves when they control the process, and how they respond to questions when they do not. If the answer is cutting off access to the press, the obvious question is, what are they trying to hide?”

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A Harley-Davidson spokesperson did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

In January, Harley-Davidson announced plans to close its assembly plant in Kansas City, Mo. and merge its operations into its plant in York, Pa. and lay off about 800 workers. The plant is one of its four U.S. factories. Harley-Davidson reported in January that its global retail motorcycle sales fell 6.7% in 2017, compared with the prior year. U.S. sales were down 8.5% and international sales declined 3.9%.

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Broc Romanek, editor at TheCorporateCounsel.net website, a place where attorneys who work for corporations, and those that defend them, share corporate governance and securities law best practices, said it was a bad idea. Romanek told MarketWatch that guidelines suggest that media bans may have unintended negative consequences.

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“Many companies don’t allow the media to attend their annual meetings - indicating that the meetings are intended for shareholders. This has been described as an increasingly common mistake, particularly for those companies facing controversy (e.g., poor performance, management issues, corporate scandal.)”

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Rather than tempering the controversy, a media ban may incite additional criticism, said Romanek, according to a checklist published by his site. A lack of transparency may give rise to concerns that the company is trying to hide things—”thus generating speculation, suspicion and reputational damage.”

Harley-Davidson shares are down 21.6% for the year to date while the S&P 500 SPX, -2.37% is up 1.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average has gained 0.9%.

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