After the 28 May 1926 coup d'état, Gomes da Costa signed a decree on July 5 that would secure freedom of thought "independent from bonds and censorship", even though it insisted on prohibiting offences to the republic's institutions or any behaviour that would disturb public order. The Press Law of the new military executive repeated almost word-for-word the assurances of article 13 from the previous Press Law, allowing criticism and discussion of legislative bills, political and religious doctrines, acts of government, and so forth, as long as the goal was to "enlighten and prepare the (public) opinion for the necessary reforms(...)". On July 29, however, prior censorship was re-instated. The "Estado Novo" never took a definite stance on the censorship, avoiding even discussion of the subject the few times the issue was raised in the Parliament. If only the signed legislation is taken into account, one might suppose the regime was quite lenient. On May 27, 1927 the Literary Property Law was reformed, which in its letter guaranteed censorship-free publication. A decree of September 3, 1926 had already extended the freedom of the press concept to apply on the Overseas Provinces, pending a future law that would be signed into effect on June 27, 1927.