This week national press organizations honored Reps. Rick Boucher (D-Va.) and Mike Pence (R-Ind.) with the Sunshine in Government Award. The congressmen are sponsors of the Free Flow of Information Act -- a/k/a the shield law.

The legislation would shield journalists from being compelled to identify their sources under threat of going to jail. Last year Boucher explained his bill in an Op/Ed column for

The Times-Dispatch:

"By protecting reporters and their confidential sources, the Free Flow of Information Act will encourage whistleblowers to talk to journalists and expose wrongdoing. It will ensure that journalists can continue to do what they have done since our nation's founding -- to exercise the freedom of the press to bring important information to light. As Thomas Jefferson recognized, our liberty and our democracy are dependent on a free and fully functioning press. Our bill will help underpin this nation's tradition of honoring the press as the hallmark of our open and informed society."

The Boucher-Pence bill passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support. It is time that the Senate passed the legislation, too.

Boucher and Pence truly earned the sunshine award. Boucher -- who represents Southwest Virginia's 9th District -- is stalwart in his defense of a free press. Freedom of information belongs to everyone. Sunshine benefits all. The commonwealth joins the press corps in giving Boucher and Pence a salute.