One of the journalists behind an undercover operation which showed One Nation members meeting with powerful gun lobby groups in the US says Al Jazeera did not try to influence the Australian federal election.
Al Jazeera reporter Rodger Muller posed as the head of fake lobby group Guns Rights Australia and initiated the One Nation meetings with the NRA.
One Nation's Queensland leader Steve Dickson and Senator Hanson's chief of staff James Ashby were caught meeting with gun lobby groups and talking about getting millions in donations from them.
After hidden camera footage was released by the government-funded Qatari broadcaster, Mr Ashby said it was a deliberate set-up by the Qatari government under Al Jazeera.
"This is the very first time Australia has witnessed political interference from a foreign government," Mr Ashby said in March.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
The head of Al Jazeera's investigative unit in Washington, Peter Charley, told ABC's 7.30 that the organisation "did not seek to influence the election or democracy".
"We were simply revealing what we found and any claims that Roger or I were acting on behalf of a foreign government is ludicrous," Mr Charles said in the interview which aired on Wednesday night.
When asked about the ethics of Mr Muller being planted in an investigation and posing as someone he isn't, Mr Charley said he was "quite comfortable" with the way it was handled.
"I think a degree of subterfuge is the only way we could have penetrated the NRA," he told 7.30.
"There was certainly no way they were going to give true, unguarded points of view to us if we knocked on the door and said hello, we're from Al Jazeera," he said.
