Radio Veritas Appeals to Church

August 16, 2011: The program director of Radio Veritas Asia in Manila, Philippines, has urged Pakistani local bishops to make the Church-run radio station an integral part of their pastoral plans. “We need more cooperation from the local Church. It is an excellent institution for promoting our programs but has been slow in doing so,” said Manila-based Father Gabriel Htun Myint. He was addressing a gathering marking the 24th anniversary of the RVA Urdu service recently at the WAVE Studio in Lahore, Pakistan. He said economic woes in Europe and the March tsunami in Japan have seen key sponsorship deals dry up and are causing a funding crisis within RVA. The Catholic shortwave radio station now plans to decentralize its operations as part of a three year plan. Father Htun Myint also hinted that Radio Veritas may shift to FM. Father Nadeem Shakir director of RVA’s Urdu service said the move would be a positive step. The patronage of bishops will see more involvement from the clergy and thus attract more Christian listeners; something we had been struggling to achieve for years,” he said. The new strategy involves relocating all the Asian coordinators, presently based in Quezon in the Philippines, to their respective countries. The Church in each country will now produce its own programs and sponsors need only pledge to fund transmission costs of around US$4 per minute.