Dongnip sinmun (The Independent), published in Shanghai, was the newspaper that established the legitimacy of the national press in Korea. It disseminated the main activities and ideologies of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, which was the center of the Korean independence movement, and reported the anti-Japanese movements in China and Manchuria to Korea and the wider world. The newspaper was first issued in 1919, with novelist Yi Gwang-su assuming the roles of president and editor-in-chief and poet Ju Yo-han serving as the head of the publication department. The newspaper played a crucial role in providing a mental prop for important figures of the Provisional Government and Koreans in Shanghai, and strongly criticized Japanese invaders and tried to awaken the spirit of national independence.