echo : default charset

[eluser]Patrick Maciel | @p4designer[/eluser]
Hello everbody.

I have one simple question: why not get the CodeIgniter default charset defined in the config.php file to echo (php)?

I'm asking this because if I only want to display a message on the index () function of a controller, such as:

Code:

echo "Olá Mundo!";

I get invalid characters = 'á'.

But to solve this, is theoretically simple, just add this code:

Code:

header ('Content-Type: text / html; charset = utf-8');

, first line of the index ().

I know the HTML meta tags, etc.. But this is not the issue. I wish only to show a message with special characters.

Can you help me and/or explain to me why the CodeIgniter not get the default charset in config.php?

Sorry for my English, I am Brazilian and I need more practice.