The mass media in China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of mass media and is under the direct supervision and control of the Chinese government and ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Media in China is strictly controlled by the CCP, with the main agency that oversees the nation's media being the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP. The largest media organizations, including the China Central Television, the People's Daily, and the Xinhua News Agency, are all controlled by the CCP. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 and until the 1980s, almost all media outlets in mainland China have been state-run. Privately owned media outlets only began to emerge at the onset of economic reforms, although state media continue to hold significant market share. All media continues to follow regulations imposed by the Central Propaganda Department of the CCP on subjects considered taboo by the CCP, including but not limited to the legitimacy of the Party, pro-democracy movements, human rights in Tibet, the Uyghur genocide, pornography, and the banned religious topics, such as the Dalai Lama and Falun Gong. Hong Kong, which has maintained a separate media ecosystem than mainland China, is also witnessing increasing self-censorship. Reporters Without Borders consistently ranks China very poorly on media freedoms in their annual releases of the Press Freedom Index, labeling the Chinese government as having "the sorry distinction of leading the world in repression of the Internet". In 2021, China ranked 177 out of 180 nations on the Press Freedom Index. History Under Mao In both the Yan'an era of the 1930s and the early 1950s, the CCP encouraged grassroots journalism in the form "worker-peasant correspondents," an idea originating from the Soviet Union. During the early period (1966-1968) of the Cultural Revolution, freedom of the press in China was at its peak. Independent political groups could publish broadsheets and handbills, as well as leaders' speeches and meeting transcripts which would normally have been considered highly classified. During those years, several Red Guard organizations operated independent printing presses to publish newspapers, articles, speeches, and big-character posters. Reforms and opening up Media controls were most relaxed during the 1980s under paramount leader Deng Xiaoping, until they were tightened in the aftermath of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Journalists were active