Radio Veritas Asia reaches milestone with one million followers

Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), the Asian Bishops’ project to proclaim the Gospel to Asians, has achieved the milestone of having one million followers on Facebook.

Established in 1969 as a Catholic continental shortwave radio, RVA migrated to the online, digital platform four years ago. Through its 21 language services across Asia and an English website, RVA reached over one million Facebook followers on June 14. The audience continues to grow on Facebook and other social media platforms.

To mark the event, the President of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences (FABC) Cardinal Charles Maung Bo will preside over a Thanksgiving Mass at St. Mary’s Cathedral, Yangon, Myanmar, at 11.45 am (Hong Kong time) on June 24, the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

The Mass will be live-streamed from Myanmar on the Facebook page of RVA and all the Language Services.

“This is a very significant record and a great milestone for the whole of RVA. We achieved this by regularly engaging with the audience and building a digital community, and other effective ways,” said Father Victor F. Sadaya, General Manager of RVA.

RVA has continued to share Christ and his message through its continental Catholic radio to serve Asian countries in local languages, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.”

Responding to the challenge of new media, RVA embraced the digital platform to connect with the global Asian audience through its 21 Language Services on a variety of social media platforms.

The FABC and its Office of Social Communication (OSC), and the benefactors and donors together with the management and the staff of RVA have played an indispensable role to achieve this benchmark, said Father George Plathottam, Executive Secretary of FABC-OSC.

This milestone is a moment to motivate and inspire the RVA family to continue its mission to the Church and all peoples of Asia, he added.

Father Bernard Dashi Tang, RVA Program Director said, “This great number of followers adds to the reliability and credibility of the brand that we aspire to sustain. We are aware that more followers usually mean more potential audiences.”

“Our followers are our assets. They are the first audience to encounter the social media posts and content of the languages in Asia and other parts of the world,” he said.

According to Ms Arlene Donarber, RVA Assistant Program Director and head of the audience research, the milestone is the fruit of collaboration and hard job by all the language services and staff in different Asian countries.

The one million milestone is a challenge for RVA to continue to offer more relevant, meaningful, and engaging content, she added.