The Lord of the Rings director, Peter Jackson, has offered a defence for a man being prosecuted for insulting Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, by comparing him to the creature Gollum in Tolkien’s epic.

The Oscar-winning director issued a statement saying the images posted by the defendant, Bilgin Çiftçi, a Turk, which compared Erdoğan’s facial expressions to those of the film creature, were actually of Sméagol, Gollum’s benign alter ego.

Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey. Erdoğan’s reign has been characterised by intense pressure on the media and the prosecution of many local journalists, who have decried what they call the worst crackdown on the press in the republic’s history, saying the president has little tolerance for mockery or dissent.

The trial of Çiftçi, a physician and civil servant, who was fired from his job over the affair, has been adjourned as Gollum’s personality is debated to determine if the comparison is indeed an insult. The group assessing the fictional character includes two academics, two behavioural scientists or psychologists and an expert on cinema and television productions, according to the Turkish newspaper Today’s Zaman.

Jackson and the screenwriter Fran Walsh, said: “If the images ... are in fact the ones forming the basis of this Turkish lawsuit, we can state categorically – none of them feature the character known as Gollum. All of them are images of the character called Sméagol.”



Yüzüklerin Efendisi'ndeki Gollum'u Erdoğan'la yanyana gösteren bu fotoğraf için Dr.Bilgin Çiftçi'ye soruşturma açıldı pic.twitter.com/fdMAPTGQLf — tamer_inc (@tamer_inc) February 4, 2015

The statement added: “Sméagol is a joyful, sweet, character. Smeagol does not lie, deceive, or attempt to manipulate others. He is not evil, conniving, or malicious – these personality traits belong to Gollum, who should never be confused with Sméagol. Sméagol would never dream of wielding power over those weaker than himself. He is not a bully. In fact he’s very loveable.”

The character of Gollum appears in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy by JRR Tolkien. In Tolkien’s story Sméagol is corrupted by the One Ring, forged by Sauron, the embodiment of evil in the fictional world of Middle Earth. He constantly battles with Gollum, his evil alter ego, as he assists the hobbits Frodo and Sam in their quest to destroy the ring.

Sméagol is described as a former hobbit, a race of short, peaceful humanoids who enjoy beer and large amounts of food.

The debate on whether Sméagol is a villain or hero is a contentious one for Lord of the Rings fans. The case has sparked much amusement on social media, with some joking that Erdoğan has managed to hold on to power in Turkey longer than Sméagol had hold of the ring. (However, that claim is inaccurate as Gollum possessed the ring for more than 500 years – as one of its effects was long life.)

The case involving Çiftçi is set to continue in February.