diff --git a/reference/dom/domdocument/createelement.xml b/reference/dom/domdocument/createelement.xml
index 089a4f7cd9..5a818ac126 100644
--- a/reference/dom/domdocument/createelement.xml
+++ b/reference/dom/domdocument/createelement.xml
@@ -72,7 +72,7 @@
 <![CDATA[
 <?php
 
-$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'iso-8859-1');
+$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
 
 $element = $dom->createElement('test', 'This is the root element!');
 
diff --git a/reference/dom/domdocument/createelementns.xml b/reference/dom/domdocument/createelementns.xml
index 6e943e1527..b4f85189d3 100644
--- a/reference/dom/domdocument/createelementns.xml
+++ b/reference/dom/domdocument/createelementns.xml
@@ -91,7 +91,7 @@
 <![CDATA[
 <?php
 
-$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'iso-8859-1');
+$dom = new DOMDocument('1.0', 'utf-8');
 
 $element = $dom->createElementNS('http://www.example.com/XFoo', 'xfoo:test', 'This is the root element!');