In November 2017, Louise and other female journalists co-founded The Second Source to address sexual harassment in journalism. They set up a mentoring scheme which paired over 100 young women journalists with a mentor, and Louise mentors two journalists as part of this. The group recently consulted on a report for the European Parliament on gender equality in the media sector, which was adopted successfully and includes points on freelancing and harassment.
Louise is an associate lecturer at Birkbeck, University of London, teaching a postgraduate module in web journalism. She revamped the curriculum in 2017 to include sessions on fake news and the role of online media in a democracy.
She fundraised for a year for global education charity WE, and is part of the Women of the Future Ambassadors Programme, giving mentoring and careers advice to sixth-formers. She is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Commonwealth Society, working to promote education and opportunities for young people.
In 2017 she was a judge for the BAFTAs in the television news coverage category which was won by Victoria Derbyshire: Football Abuse. She has also judged the Student Publication Awards, Digiday Europe Video Awards and the Women In Marketing Awards, where she set up a new category for journalists who cover marketing.
She has spoken in schools and on panels including the Westminster Forum and Omniwomen.
Louise Ridley 