Edik Baghdasaryan

Edik Baghdasaryan is a prominent investigative journalist known for his stories exposing government corruption in Armenia. He is the head of the Armenian Association of Investigative Journalists and editor of Armenia's only investigative journalism newspaper, Hetq. He is based in Armenia's capital Yerevan.

Awards In September 2008, Baghdasaryan won the 2008 Global Shining Light Award at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference held in Norway for his series of articles "The Minister and the Mining Sector," which revealed how Armenia's former Minister of Nature Protection Vardan Ayvazyan had allocated mines (mostly for gold and poly-metallic) to more than a dozen relatives' names, thus violating several laws. Apart from Yerevan he also studied at Moscow University and got a degree in TV Journalism.

Physical assaults and death threats On November 17, 2008, Baghdasaryan became the target of a violent attack, which he believes is connected with his reporting. He was ambushed and beaten by three unknown assailants as he was getting into his parked car shortly after leaving his office in downtown Yerevan at 8 pm. Baghdasaryan said that the attack was unprovoked and that the assailants did not demand anything particular from him. The assailants fled after a security worker from a nearby construction site alerted by the quarrel fired a shot into the air.