Editing Cultural Revolution (section)

=== Media ===
{{Further|Media history of China}}
During the early period of the Cultural Revolution, [[freedom of the press in China]] was at its peak.<ref name="Russo2020a">{{Cite book |last=Russo |first=Alessandro |title=Cultural Revolution and Revolutionary Culture |year=2020 |publisher=[[Duke University Press]] |isbn=978-1-4780-1218-4 |page=148 |doi=10.2307/j.ctv15kxg2d |jstor=j.ctv15kxg2d}}</ref> While the number of newspapers declined in this period, the number of independent publications by mass political organizations grew.<ref name="Volland2021">{{Cite journal |last=Volland |first=Nicolai |year=2021 |title="Liberating the Small Devils": Red Guard Newspapers and Radical Publics, 1966–1968 |journal=[[The China Quarterly]] |volume=246 |page=367 |doi=10.1017/S0305741021000424 |issn=0305-7410 |s2cid=235452119 |doi-access=free}}</ref> According to [[National Bureau of Statistics of China|China's National Bureau of Statistics]], the number of newspapers dropped from 343 in 1965, to 49 in 1966, and then to a 20th-century low of 43 in 1967.<ref name="Volland2021" /> At the same time, the number of publications by mass organizations such as [[Red Guards]] grew to an estimated number as high as 10,000.<ref name="Volland2021" />

Independent political groups could publish [[Broadsheet|broadsheets]] and handbills, as well as leaders' speeches and meeting transcripts which would normally have been considered highly classified.<ref name="Walder2019b">{{Cite book |last=Walder |first=Andrew G. |title=Agents of Disorder: Inside China's Cultural Revolution |year=2019 |publisher=[[Harvard University Press]] |doi=10.2307/j.ctvnjbhrb |isbn=978-0-674-24363-7 |jstor=j.ctvnjbhrb |s2cid=241177426}}</ref>{{rp|24}} From 1966 to 1969, at least 5,000 new broadsheets by independent political groups were published.<ref name="Thornton2019" />{{rp|60}} Several Red Guard organizations also operated independent printing presses to publish newspapers, articles, speeches, and [[Big-character poster|big-character posters]].<ref name="Russo2020a" /> For example, the largest student organization in Shanghai, the Red Revolutionaries, established a newspaper that had a print run of 800,000 copies by the end of 1966.<ref name="Walder2019b" />{{rp|58–59}}