On Sunday the British tabloid posted an article about longtime President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo alleging the strongman skinned opponents alive and ate their testicles, brains and livers.
The New Democrat reprinted certain elements of the piece by journalist Thomas Burrows on its yesterday front page, attracting the ire of the information minister.
Festus Poquie, editor of the New Democrat newspaper, was then detained by plain-clothed police and locked in a cell for several hours before his release today afternoon.
Liberia's information minister Eugene Nagbe had already contacted the country's press union to complain about the article and demand action be taken against the New Democrat.
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"Considering that the conduct of the publisher of New Democrat marks a most dangerous departure from the principles of professional journalism, we demand and insist that the paper be penalised," read a letter signed by Nagbe.
The Press Union of Liberia described his arrest as "an act of intimidation against the freedom of press in Liberia," at a moment of high tension between the media and the government.
Reporters Without Borders said the public had "a right to hear all opinions, even those that are critical and irritate the current government," following the case of the minister.
Obiang, who heads sub-Saharan's Africa's third largest oil producer, is the continent's longest serving leader and has served since taking power in a coup in 1979.
Equatorial Guinea is regularly tagged as one of Africa's most corrupt and authoritarian states.