The various forms of media in the People's Republic of China are subject to restrictions achieved both through formal laws and regulation and through informal means. While much has been written in a normative context about the extent of human rights protections in China, this article seeks to engage with the debate via a focus on the intersection between media freedom and public health. In particular, through a close examination of the role of media outlets in dealing with the contemporary SARS and HIV/AIDS epidemics in China, the article will initially analyse how the government's system of media content control hampers strategies to effectively respond to the spread of infectious diseases. It will then assess whether the media restrictions in question can be justified nonetheless, taking into account China's history and traditions, level of economic development and political institutions. Ultimately, the article argues that in the way they exacerbate the damage wrought by public health crises, restrictions on media in China cannot be justified by the government's implicitly utilitarian approach to human rights in this context.