Third World News Bureau

What is their story?

The Third World News Bureau was established in 1976 to promote the dissemination of political and cultural news about people of color locally, nationally, and internationally. It was located in the building on the corner of Fruitvale and East 14th Street, now International Boulevard, that housed the offices of COMEXAZ (Comité de México y Aztlán). The office included a radio production area and a broadcast studio. The TWNB produced a daily 1/2 hour “magazine” style show which aired on KPFA radio in Berkeley and distributed news stories to various radio stations in the Bay Area. The stories covered issues and events in East Oakland and the wider Bay Area and provided exclusive coverage and analysis of international news stories with a focus on how they related to local communities.

The Third World News Bureau was truly multicultural in its make-up and perspective, at the time emerging as an innovative and unique source of news employing first person narratives, music, poetry and the voices and sounds from the Bay Area’s thriving communities of color.