G4S has announced that it will be confiscating the mobile phones of shareholders and media representatives at its annual general meeting on Thursday 4th June 2015. Even G4S staff and board directors will not be permitted to bring smartphones into the vicinity.

The security and outsourcing company is attempting to prevent a repeat of last year’s meeting, where activists who had bought G4S shares in order to attend staged a protest against the firm’s activities and filmed the entire process.

The Guardian has reported it is likely that protesters from a group known as Stop G4S will be attending this year’s AGM.

A spokesman from G4S commented: “Last year we had a large number of protesters who were effectively staging demonstrations in the meeting and they were filming it.

“The intention is not to suppress the legitimate free speech of people but it is just simply to maintain some degree of security for our people in the meeting. That is the rationale.”

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