The phrase "authorities were held" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used in contexts discussing accountability or responsibility, often in legal or political discussions.
Example: "In the investigation, the authorities were held accountable for their actions during the crisis."
Alternatives: "authorities were deemed responsible" or "authorities were held liable".
And for the children in Z v UK, whose abuse and neglect by their parents was overlooked for years by the social services departments who were supposed to be protecting them, Article 3 was a means by which the negligent local authorities were held liable to pay them damages and the overall law changed to make such neglect less likely to happen in the future.
Meetings with Roma community leaders and local authorities were held to inform them of the situation, raise awareness and seek their collaboration to ensure that all eligible Roma children were reached.
This year, Iranian authorities were holding 30 journalists in jail, down from 35 in 2013.
Mr. Cohen said he believed that Belgian authorities were holding him on a burglary charge.
Authorities were holding the ship, registered in Liberia, pending a report on ecological damage.
The piece did not explicitly say that authorities were holding him and police have not responded to faxed queries.
A spokesman for the Food and Drug Adminstration said it had not had an opporutunity to examine the capsule because the Nashville authorities were holding it for their own investigation.
The monks also said that local authorities were holding other monks and that armed plainclothes security officers were posted around the city.
Colin Stewart, a spokesman for the Canadian Foreign Ministry in Ottawa, said in a telephone interview that his country's embassy in Havana had learned in recent weeks that the Cuban authorities were holding Mr. Terpil.
It was a little delayed to get all the permission from the U.S. Science: Was your decision to send it to Canada also because U.S. authorities were holding up your samples?
One woman, whose older sister was making her first plane journey, told the BBC she thought the Malaysian authorities were holding information back, "Why don't they tell us the truth?" she asked.
