I am using ckeditor 4.4.4, I create an instance of the editor and then set some html data using the code:

$('#test1').ckeditor(function () {
                var value = ' <p>Some text</p><p>Some other text</p>';
                instance = this;
                instance.setData(value, function () { });
            }, {  });

But then I see an empty line at the beginning of the editor. If I inspect the source code of the data I have set (inside the editor), it says:

<p> </p>

<p>Some text</p>

<p>Some other text</p>

As you can see there is an extra <p></p> tag at the beginning which was not present in my original code. I saw on internet and this forum lots of similar posts, but none of them regarding my case in particular: I have freaked around a bit with 'enterMode', 'allowedContent' and 'autoParagraph' settings but to no avail.
I have tested this with Chrome, FF and IE 11.

Is this a bug or am I doing something wrong? Is there a fix for this? Thank you.