A self-supporting coated filter element for filtering dusts or aerosols out of the ambient air or suspended matter out of a liquid has a porous base body and a porous filtering layer applied on the face of the base body exposed to the contaminated ambient air or liquid. The base body is made of sintered plastics, the filtering layer is also composed of the same plastics and adhesively applied thereon. The plastic is polyethylene and the ratio between the average pore size of the microporous filtering layer and the average pore size of the macropores produced by sintering of the base body is comprised between 1:3 and 1:6.