During late March, two high-profile Nobel Peace Prize laureates visited Stockholm. Filipino journalist Maria Ressa has led the fight for press freedom in the Philippines and Leymah Gbowee’s peaceful protests helped end the second Liberian civil war in 2003. During their visit, they spoke to students, teachers and a broader Stockholm audience about courage, struggle and democracy.
During a visit to the Nobel Prize Museum, Maria Ressa also donated some artefacts to the museum’s collection. Among the items she handed over were two t-shirts from the digital news site Rappler with the text “Believe there is good in the world”.
“We call it the ‘be the good’ t-shirt. But it says that in order to be the good you have to believe there is good in the world,” she said.
The T-shirt was created by Rappler, which Ressa co-founded.
“When you’re investigative journalists, you’re often grim and determined because you’re looking at everything horrible. But what are you really doing this for? You’re doing this for your community. And I’m always very hopeful.”
Maria Ressa has successfully overcome eight of the criminal charges against her, but two cases remain. She also donated a video to the museum showing her first arrest on February 13, 2019.
“I’m here, and my former president is arrested and at The Hague. Duterte’s arrest shows that it’s not hopeless.”
Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Leymah Gbowee led the Women of Liberia Mass Action for Peace movement, which used non-violent protests to help end the second Liberian civil war in 2003. Her efforts and those of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf contributed to a period of peace and a free presidential election in 2005, which Sirleaf won. Gbowee and Sirleaf were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 along with Yemeni journalist Tawakkol Karman “for their non-violent struggle for the safety of women and for women’s rights to full participation in peace-building work”.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa co-founded the digital news site Rappler, which has led the fight for press freedom in the Philippines. As Rappler’s CEO, Ressa endured political harassment and arrests by the Duterte government. In October 2021, Ressa was one of two journalists to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their “efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.” She shared the prize with Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov.
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1 (of 3) Leymah Gbowee gave a lecture at Stockholm university on 27 March 2025. “Peace is not the absence of war. Peace is the presence of conditions that give dignity to all,” Leymah said.
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Nanaka Adachi
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2 (of 3) Leymah Gbowee and Maria Ressa at Södra Teatern speaking about courage, resistance and democracy.
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin
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3 (of 3) Maria Ressa and Leymah Gbowee.
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin