MUMBAI: Hudson Institute has honoured News Corp and 21st Century Fox executive chairman Rupert Murdoch with its annual Global Leadership Award. Dr. Henry Kissinger and Hudson Institute president Kenneth Weinstein presented the award to Murdoch at a dinner held at The Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.

Hudson's award recognized Murdoch for his strategic leadership and adherence to the principles of democracy, free markets and economic growth, national security and a strong civil society. 

Through an extensive career developing media properties, from News Limited in Australia to Fox News and The Wall Street Journal, Murdoch has demonstrated a dedication to Hudson's guiding principles.

“We honor Rupert not because he is a conservative, but because he is a revolutionary,” said Hudson Institute president Kenneth Weinstein. “He has transformed global media by sensing transformative possibilities that others simply couldn't, taking gigantic risks along the way, all to inform, entertain, and build new markets.”

In his acceptance speech, Murdoch addressed the need for strong global American leadership. “As we have seen in Syria and in the Ukraine and in the streets of Paris, without this country's self-confident championing of that human quest for freedom and humane values, global affairs collapse into nightmare—the policy wasteland becomes fertile territory for terror,” Murdoch said.

Murdoch joins a list of past Hudson Institute award honorees that includes Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, Shinzo Abe, George Shultz, Dick Cheney, Joseph Lieberman, Mitch Daniels, and David Petraeus.