The Electronic Media Council fined Croatian Radio-Television (HRT) €13,270 and the responsible person €1,320 for covert advertising in a show in which Serbian singer Lepa Brena promoted her brand of stockings.

In mid-December, the Council requested a comment from the HRT due to possible violation of Electronic Media Act provisions on covert advertising following a 4 December afternoon show in which the singer for several minutes promoted stockings from her fashion collection, without the hostess stopping her.

The HRT responded that Lepa Brena was informed of all the topics of the talk and that her new enterprise project was not one of them. Despite that, she used the opportunity to promote it, the HRT said, adding that no one involved with the show had any intention of advertising those products.

Lepa Brena told Serbian media she did not intentionally violate advertising rules, adding that no one had explicitly forbidden her to promote her stockings and that they could have interrupted her at any moment.