In Malta, unlike other European countries, regulations regarding unsolicited advertising mail are, regrettably, not enforced. I urge the Commissioner of Data Protection to ensure that unsolicited junk mail is stopped.

Large companies are sending brochures and sometimes even magazines to our doorsteps indiscriminately, without us having ever subscribed to such mailing lists.

This invasion of privacy is not only having an impact on our environment, as thousands of magazines and brochures are thrown away every day, but also diminishing the importance of the postal service.

Regrettably the local postal service is also an accomplice to this, as I have often noticed postmen delivering such junk mail themselves. I have to assume that the advertising companies pay a small fee to the postal services to deliver this junk to our households, which in my opinion is unethical.

As technology improves and the Maltese public is starting to make greater use of mobile phones and e-mail, the junk mail abuse is being registered on these means of communication too. We are all receiving an increasing number of calls every week from Melita, Go and certain insurance companies urging us to subscribe to a better package or to invest in dubious insurance policies.

I have always asked such callers to let me know where they got my mobile phone number from, since I never consented to such calls and also ask them to kindly not call me again; regrettably both requests are never complied with and I keep receiving the same calls week after week. I also suspect that most large companies are selling my details to advertising companies so they can too target me with such calls and junk mail.

Other countries have several safeguards against such junk mail and unsolicited cold calls (as the phenomenon of unsolicited mobile/ phone calls is referred to); most European countries have a national do-not-mail and do-not-call list where members of the public can easily register their address and or phone numbers online and companies are legally bound not to call or send any advertising material to such addresses. Companies that do not comply with such regulations face stiff fines.

I expect a reply from Maltapost and the Commissioner for Data Protection on the points I raised in this letter. I also expect a reply from Melita and Go and perhaps from the Malta Insurance Association too.