An F.B.I. agent did not violate the agency’s undercover policy by posing as a journalist nearly a decade ago during an investigation, a federal watchdog has concluded, despite criticism by journalists that the practice is harmful to the news-gathering process.

The finding is contained in a report released on Thursday by the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General. The episode involved a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent who posed as a “staff publisher” for The Associated Press in order to infiltrate the computer of a person suspected of having made repeated bomb threats to Timberline High School in Washington State.

“We believe that the judgments agents made about aspects of the planned undercover activity in 2007 did not violate the undercover policies in place at the time,” the report reads.

The inspector general also found that an F.B.I. policy adopted this June requiring an agent to obtain high-level approval before posing as a journalist constitutes “an important and appropriate addition” to its undercover policies.