I'm no expert on the freedom of the press or otherwise in Singapore but I have yet to see any evidence of truly balanced reporting with respect to this issue. It would be easy to conclude that the pilot's union have failed to present their case well but we must remember that whenever a statement is made to the media the "sound bite" that most suites the powers that be is the one that will be reported.
Thus the pilots are portrayed as a bunch of greedy xenophobes opposing any efforts to address the issue when they are, in fact, responsible individuals whose incomes are already badly hit by the reduction in flying and resent SIA taking the opportunity to further erode their pay and conditions using the (hopefully) temporary SARS situation as an excuse.