Mission & values

Our mission

Our values

Professional integrity and social responsibility of journalism are underlying principles of our work.  

No bias 

Zaborona will never be an ally for special interests. We will report stories objectively and effectively to the reader — no matter whether it resonates with public opinion or not. Our newsroom has no room for political, religious, patriotic, far-right or far-left activism. Our journalists and editors are guided by fairness, ethics and a clear understanding of human rights.  

No oligarch funding 

Research and investigative journalism need resources and time. Most Ukrainian newsrooms cannot commit to in-depth reporting — often because of funding, but mostly because of an owner’s agenda and interests. As a nonprofit, Zaborona’s editorial work is powered through donations, making it independent from Ukrainian politics and affairs. We practice transparent financial reporting, so our supporters know how their money are spent. 

Reader first 

The data on what our readers want is unmistakable: content they can trust — delivered more efficiently. Every piece of material we produce will be broken and narrated with real expertise – and then summarized in one shareable and nice looking visual element. We also designed our content to move seamlessly from our platform to other ecosystems, including Facebook and Google Newsstand and very soon Apple News and Flipboard, to meet readers on their terms, not ours.  

Bringing new experiences 

Immersive experiences are taking the world by storm for good reasons, Ukrainian reader deserves it too. At Zaborona we love to experiment with content, formats and interactive storytelling approaches. Our team practices visual storytelling via Shorthand or Readymag platforms (industry-leading technology used by The Guardian and BBC among others), 360 / VR content, short-films, chat-based and quiz-based storytelling. 

Giving the floor to voices that matter 

We believe there are so many voices outside our newsroom that may be essential for our readers or may serve to broaden their views and help to make the right choices. So we gather Ukraine’s most actual speakers, critics and analysts on platform’s special section “Opinions” and very soon on our offline initiative “Zaborona Talk.” 

Excellence always 

We think wide, we promise a lot, but we know how big the expectation that our readers and supporters put on us – this is a most important aim for us. To match it, always.  

Zaborona is proud to be home to some of the best journalists, producers and videographers in the country — with experience of working in leading Ukrainian, American and European media outlets. Every day, we want to improve ourselves from the day before.