diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index cd71c3a..f632f29 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -73,6 +73,9 @@ download:
 <!DOCTYPE HTML>
 <html>
 <head>
+    <!-- when using the mode "code", it's important to specify charset utf-8 -->
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
+
     <link href="jsoneditor/dist/jsoneditor.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     <script src="jsoneditor/dist/jsoneditor.min.js"></script>
 </head>
diff --git a/docs/usage.md b/docs/usage.md
index ac4e0e6..4cd9c0c 100644
--- a/docs/usage.md
+++ b/docs/usage.md
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ var json = editor.get();
 <!DOCTYPE HTML>
 <html>
 <head>
+    <!-- when using the mode "code", it's important to specify charset utf-8 -->
+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8">
+
     <link href="jsoneditor/dist/jsoneditor.min.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
     <script src="jsoneditor/dist/jsoneditor.min.js"></script>
 </head>
